ArtistNorwegianb.1925–d.2015
Thorstein Rittun
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Thorstein Rittun was born on 16 February 1929 in Skien, a port city on the Telemark coast where Henrik Ibsen had grown up a century earlier. He passed his examen artium in 1947 and enrolled directly at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts, studying under Per Krohg through 1950 — a painter who had himself trained in Paris under Henri Matisse and who brought that chromatic freedom back to Oslo. Rittun made his debut at the Høstutstillingen (Autumn Exhibition) in 1949, still a student, with a linocut. His first solo exhibition came in Skien in 1955.
Through the late 1950s and into the 1960s Rittun moved across Europe. He spent time in Denmark in 1956, Spain in 1959, and Italy in 1961, then made a study trip to Egypt in 1969. These years shaped something distinct: a way of painting that felt loose and almost effortless, with warm colour and a recurring cast of figures — musicians, lovers, children, animals — set against decorative landscapes that refuse to stay anchored to any single place. Critics and gallery notes have consistently drawn comparisons to Marc Chagall, and the parallel is apt: the same floating figures, the same sense that gravity is optional, the same folk-tale warmth. In 1958 he married Bea Rittun, born Berit Aarseth, herself a painter and textile artist.
Rittun was not a painter only. He worked in ceramics and produced a number of public decorations in that medium, bringing the same cheerful, humanist imagery he used on canvas into durable architectural contexts. He was also a prolific book illustrator, contributing to works by authors including Gordon Hølmebakk, Åse-Marie Nesse, Tor Åge Bringsværd, and Annie Riis, as well as illustrated collections of Norwegian folktales. This strand of his practice kept him in close contact with children's literature and with the vernacular storytelling tradition of his country. He died on 6 April 2018 in Norway, at the age of 89. His wife Bea Rittun, who shared his working life across six decades, survived him.
His painting Ut av skogen (1968) entered the collection of the National Museum of Norway, where it remains the primary institutional record of his work. The museum holds him listed as painter, graphic artist, and drawing artist — a breadth that reflects how consistently he moved between disciplines without treating any of them as secondary.
On the auction market, Rittun has traded almost exclusively through Norwegian houses. Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner in Oslo accounts for 26 of the 28 works indexed on Auctionist, with Nyborgs Auksjoner handling the remainder. Hammer prices have ranged from around 7,000 to 35,000 NOK, with the top result recorded for Ny vin 1999 at 35,000 NOK. Other strong results include Spillet 1985 (27,000 NOK), Sunday in the archipelago (25,000 NOK), and Siesta 1974 (24,000 NOK). Works depicting figures in domestic or festive scenes consistently outperform landscapes in this market.