Aksel Waldemar Johannessen (1880-1922) studied sculpture at the State Art School in Oslo. Together with his wife he founded a workshop for traditional clothing and folk art. He maintained in close contact with the Norwegian literary couple Arne and Hulda Garbor, the founders of the Norwegian Theatre, for whom he designed sets and costumes. The head on the right of Ibsen’s head in the current plaster resembles Arne Garbor’s facial features. Johannessen began painting in 1912, although his work as a painter remained for the most part unnoticed by those around him. Until his early death he produced numerous paintings, but refrained from letting them pass out of his ownership. In these works Johannessen devoted his attention to socially critical themes from the world of workers, drinkers and prostitutes, depicting their sensuality and their deprivations. His paintings provide insights into the disturbing abysses of human existence. Many works are painted with a stark realism and have a strikingly expressive effect. Like many of the protagonists in his paintings, the artist was also headed toward a dramatic end. Johannessen’s early death at the age of 42 was a consequence of excessive alcohol consumption. Johannessen did not live to experience the first exhibition of his paintings, which was presented by a leading Oslo gallery. After his death, the paintings soon fell into oblivion. His work remained unknown until it was rediscovered by the Norwegian art aficionado Haakon Mehren in 1990, who has subsequently written two books on the artist and produced and documentary on him. Since then Johannessen’s paintings have come to be considered a significant Norwegian contribution to Expressionism, and in 2009/10 there was a major retrospective of his work at the Leopold Museum, Vienna, Aksel Waldemar Johannesen, An Expressionist from Norway, 30 October 2009 - 12 January 2010.

In Norse mythology, the giants or ‘jötunn’, sons of the hermaphroditic giant Ymir, were creatures of great power and in perpetual combat with the gods. Some, including Thrivaldi, had multiple heads. The main head of our Thrivaldi seems to represent the playwright and giant of Norwegian theatre Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). The distinctive ‘mutton chops’ are very similar as is the intensity of his direct gaze which Edvard Munch famously captured in his painting of Ibsen from 1898, and which he turned into a lithograph in 1902. The latter might have inspired this remarkable plaster. Although largely forgotten today, Jappe Nilssen, the ‘discoverer’ of Munch, and the sculptor Gustav Vigeland, who himself made a bust of Ibsen in 1903, expressed great enthusiasm about Johannessen’s work. Munch himself, after visiting an exhibition of Johannessen’s paintings at the Blomquist Gallery, one of Oslo’s leading galleries, commented that he counts ‘among the most remarkable paintings that I have encountered!’

We are grateful to Haakon Mehren for confirming the attribution of the present piece to Johannesen, who believes that this plaster is one of only three known sculptures by the artist. The only sculpture on public view is in the lobby of the new Oslo opera house where the artist was the set designer. Mehren points out that the plaster is a biting attack on the literati of Oslo in 1900. As such the plaster is a scathing indictment of the Oslo and Norwegian cultural elite, of which Johannessen was an avowed enemy, having been rejected by them.

Mehren believes that figure to the left of Ibsen, with its very different hairstyle, is almost certainly a very important figure in Norwegian history, namely Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754). Holberg was a 17th century playwright, a sort of Scandinavian Molière, who changed the (then) Danish-Norwegian language. Being considered the father of Norwegian (and Danish) modern literature, Holberg would have to be included in Johannessen’s somewhat sinister “homage” to the Norwegian literati.

His works have been exhibited at prestigious institutions including the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Doge's Palace in Venice, and various Norwegian museums. He made his debut as a sculptor in 1905 at the State Art Exhibition in Oslo.