ArtistNorwegianb.1887–d.1962
Axel Revold
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Axel Revold was born on 24 December 1887 in Ålesund, a coastal town shaped by trade and fishing. He began studying engineering in Kristiania in 1906, attending evening drawing classes at Den kgl. Tegneskole on the side, but abandoned his technical studies in 1908 to move to Paris. There he enrolled in Henri Matisse's private school - an experience that would determine the direction of Norwegian modernism for decades. Cézanne's structural logic and Matisse's liberated use of color became the twin poles of Revold's thinking, absorbed during two formative years in the French capital.
Returning to Norway, Revold brought an approach that was new to the country: painting not as representation of what the eye sees but as an active construction of color relationships. He articulated this through what came to be called his "three-color scale," a method of alternating complementary contrasts with harmonizing intermediate tones to generate compositional energy. His early canvases from the 1910s - Mediterranean harbor scenes, Italian women, fishermen at work - have the flat planes and warm intensities of someone who had studied closely and absorbed deeply.
The commission that fixed his place in Norwegian cultural memory arrived in the early 1920s: a cycle of monumental frescoes for the Bergen Stock Exchange. Working across three large walls, known today as Nordlandsveggen, Bergensveggen, and Verdensveggen, he painted ten murals depicting Norway's trade and maritime history. Completed in 1923, the frescoes remain in place - now forming the centerpiece of Frescohallen, one of Bergen's most visited restaurants - and stand as one of the defining works of Norwegian mural painting from the interwar period.
In 1925 Revold was appointed professor at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo, a post he held for two decades. His classroom became the transmission point for Matisse-derived methods into Norwegian practice, and the phrase "Revold school" entered the language of Norwegian art history. His second marriage in 1929 - to Irmelin Nansen, daughter of the polar explorer and statesman Fridtjof Nansen - brought him into one of Norway's most prominent households. The German occupation forced him out of the academy in 1941, but rather than withdraw, he and fellow professor Jean Heiberg established an underground art school in Oslo, held first in a disused corset factory and known as Fabrikken. The school continued through the occupation years, keeping artistic education alive outside Nazi control.
After the war, Revold received the Prince Eugen Medal in 1955 and was made a Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, along with orders from Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. He died in Bærum on 11 April 1962. The Nasjonalmuseet holds 26 of his works, including paintings from each phase of his career. On Auctionist, his 18 recorded lots are handled exclusively through Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner in Oslo. The top sales reflect consistent collector demand for his landscapes and figurative work: "Kveld" (Evening) reached 88,000 NOK, while several coastal and rural scenes sold between 15,000 and 21,000 NOK.