Xan Krohn


Xan Krohn was a Norwegian artist who worked for many years in Russia. He summed up his life’s experience in the book “En vagabonds vandring på jorden” which he published in 1950 in Oslo.

Biography

He studied painting at the Den kongelige tegneskole in 1899-1902, and from 1905 at the Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg under Russia's most significant realist painter Ilya Repin. In 1906 he went to the academy of Simon Hollósy in Munich. In 1907, he moved to Paris and began studying at the Colarossi and simultaneously studied at the Grande Chaumière Academy. While studying at the Grande Chaumière Academy, he met the Russian-Swedish aristocrat, artist Julia de Holmberg, born in Kursk. Before Christmas 1907, Xan Kron married Julia.
In the fall of 1908, the Krohn couple settled in Kyiv. Krohn and Julia jointly participated in exhibitions in Kyiv and Odessa.
During his stay in Russia he was associated with the Mir iskusstva and Knave of Diamonds movements.
Krohn participated in Knave of Diamonds Second exhibition in 1912 and then in the Fourth exhibition in 1916, becoming the only foreign participant due to the war time restrictions on the movements of canvases and people.
Till the end of 1917 he lived mostly in Russia, but the revolution of 1917 caused Krohn take his family and move to Oslo. From Oslo Krohn made several sea journeys around the world, visiting numerous countries in Africa and Asia, such travels becoming a part of his life. He worked as a decorative painter at the National Theatre (Oslo) and also worked as a stonemason. In 1925 he made the altarpiece in Totenviken Church. It consists of two parts: a glass window, which depicts "Jesus blesses the little children", and a fresco entitled "The institution of the Lord's Supper".
His art bears traces of most of the trends of the time. His main work revolved around landscapes, but he also created nudes, portraits and, like his spouse, flower paintings. He made photographs and collages.
While he worked in the Russian Empire, he had solo exhibitions in Odesa, St. Petersburg, Kiev and Riga. He has also painted frescoes now stored in the Georgian Museum in Tbilisi.
In Norway he exhibited with all major art associations and at the annual Autumn Exhibition in Oslo in 1950-1958.

Family

Xan was the son of Conrad Peter Krohn and Ingeborg Severine Christine Krüger. His father was a ship captain from Farsund. His parents divorced and his mother emigrated to the United States in 1885 and his father emigrated separately to the United States in 1889.
In 1907 he married Russian noblewoman and artist Julie de Holmberg from Kursk and they settled in Kiev.
Later, with the Orthodox priest's daughter Sonja Trezvinskaja he had a son Oleg Krohn,. In 1923 Oleg together with his mother left the USSR for Norway to join his father and also became a Norwegian artist.
Oleg's daughter Sonja Krohn, Xan's granddaughter, also became an artist in Norway.

Literature

  • Sigrid Rømcke Thue, ' i Norsk kunstnerleksikon, bind 2, s. 658–659.
  • Kari Lien, ' i Morgenbladet 18. januar 2008
  • Krohn, Xan. En vagabonds vandring på jorden. 1950, Oslo, Gyldendal.
  • Поспелов Г. Г. «Бубновый валет»: Примитив и городской фольклор в московской живописи 1910-х годов.
  • Exhibitions of Soviet visual art: reference book in 5 volumes. Moscow, Sovetsky khudozhnik Editions, 1965-1981. - Vol. 1: 1917-1932 гг. – pp. 8–12.
  • Balakhovskaya Faina, Gumilina Antonina // Encyclopedia of Russian Avant-garde: Fine Arts. Architecture / Authors-compilers V. I. Rakitin, A. D. Sarabyanov; Scientific editor A. D. Sarabyanov. Moscow, RA, Global Expert & Service Team Editions, 2013. — Vol. I: Biographies. — pp. 215–216. — ISBN 978-5-902801-11-5..
  • Северюхин Д.Я., Лейкинд О.Л. Золотой век художественных объединений в России и СССР. Справочник. Санкт-Петербург, издательство «Чернышев», 1992. ISBN 5-85555-004-4.