Ellen Iden


Ellen Nordan Lund Iden was a Norwegian painter known for her landscapes, pictures of flowers, interior paintings, and portraits using finely tuned coloring.

Biography

Ellen Nordan Lund Iden was born in Kristiania, the daughter of Major Ivar Johannessen Lund and the painter Jacobine Nordan Lund. She studied under Othon Friesz at the former Académie Moderne in Paris in 1920, and then at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts under Axel Revold from 1931 to 1932. She also studied under Leon Aurdal.
She married the sculptor Johannes Iden in 1938, who died in the sinking of the M/S Ronda one year later. Her first solo exhibition coincided with a memorial exhibition for him, held at the Artists' Association Gallery in 1943. She achieved a major breakthrough in 1955 with a solo exhibition at the Oslo Art Association Gallery. The exhibition was a traveling exhibition that was shown in several cities, and it received much attention in the press. Ellen Iden served as the first head of the Rogaland Art School, which was established as a workshop for those wishing to enter the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry. During her active years as an artist, she took part in a number of exhibitions. She exhibited twelve times at the Autumn Exhibition. Her paintings Studie av Gertrud, Kobberfjellet, and Bergknaus etter regn were purchased by the National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design. The painting Oldemors blomster was purchased by the Stavanger Art Gallery.
In 1946, Iden purchased a summer home in Holmsund near Flosta in the municipality of Arendal. Iden was part of an artists' colony that developed in the postwar years in Flosta. Together with others, including Ivar Jerven, Kjerstin Øvrelid, Knut Monrad, Finn Strømsted, Bodil Cappelen, Finn Henrik Bodvin, and Liv Nergaard, an artistic environment was created that drew inspiration from nature and the skerries. A number of her landscape motifs draw upon this background. In a letter to Agnes Hiorth from her summer home in Holmesund, she wrote the following:

Ellen Nordan Lund Iden died in Oslo.