Lorentz Dietrichson

Lorentz Henrik Segelcke Dietrichson was born in Bergen on 1 January 1834, the only child of the bank bookkeeper Fredrik Dietrichson and Marie Heiberg Dahl. He belongs to the branch descending from Bernt Fröchen Dietrichson.

He took his school-leaving examination in 1853 and began studying theology, but gave it up around 1858. He became known as a poet and critic, and in 1860 or 1861 he became a docent in aesthetics and Nordic literature at Uppsala. From 1862 to 1865 he lived in Rome, where he got to know Bjørnson and Ibsen. In 1866 he became an assistant at the new Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, and that was when he turned to art history. In 1869 he became a professor in Stockholm.

In 1875 he was appointed professor of art history at the university in Kristiania, the first position in the subject in Norway. He co-founded the Museum of Decorative Arts in 1876, headed the Sculpture Museum and sat on the board of the National Gallery. In 1886 he bought Nore stave church in Numedal to prevent it from being torn down, and passed it on to a foundation in 1890.

His works include «Den norske Treskjærerkunst» (1878), «Adolph Tidemand» (1878–79), which was the first monograph with a catalogue of works on a Norwegian artist, and «De norske stavkirker» (1891–92). His memoirs, «Svundne Tider», came out in four volumes between 1896 and 1917 and are regarded as a classic. His wife illustrated them.

He married the painter Mathilde Bonnevie on 31 March 1862. Their daughter Honoria was born in 1863 and became a physician. Dietrichson died in Kristiania on 6 March 1917 and is buried at Vår Frelsers gravlund. The portrait on this page was painted by Mathilde.