NILS ANDERSEN
Old Farm Stores In The Rain
year unknown
oil on board
60 x 73.5 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Nils Andersen was born in Drammen, Norway and immigrated to South Africa with his family as a teenager in 1911. His father was a skipper and joined a whaling vessel in Saldanha Bay before the family moved to Durban in 1914.
Andersen initially studied engineering but dreamed of being an artist and enrolled in art classes at the Natal Technical Art School between 1924 and 1928, and then ceramics in 1938. He became a full-time artist in 1933 and taught art and ceramics at the Natal Technical Art School from 1942 to 1944.
While not an official war artist, he was commissioned to paint the Durban Port and various warships during the war. In addition to maritime seascapes, Andersen also painted landscapes, village and homestead scenes, and still lifes. He travelled widely across Southern Africa, camping out on several trips to Namibia with Mr E Schweikerdt of Pretoria.
He joined the Natal Society for the Arts (NSA) (now the KwaZulu Natal Society of Arts, KZNSA), becoming a Council member in 1929 and its President in 1937, 1946, 1949 and 1955.
Many of Andersen’s artworks hang in the Norwegian Hall on the Berea in Durban and some are in the offices of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry—as well as in numerous private collections.
In addition to being represented in the SABC Art Collection, his work is also in the following public collections: Iziko South Africa National Art Gallery, Cape Town; Ann Bryant Art Gallery, East London; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Gqeberha; Durban Art Gallery; South African National War Museum, Johannesburg.