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A Virtual
Tour of Polhøgda
Polhøgda was the home of
famous Norwegian polar explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanist and Nobel Peace
Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930). Since
1958, it houses the Fridtjof Nansen Institute. Below
is a small collection of sights and objects at Polhøgda.
>
Exterior photographs
> Interior
photographs
> Dining Room wall
paintings
> The early Nansen: Polar explorer and
scientist
> Nansen's wives
>
Later years: Diplomat and humanist
EXTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS
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Polhøgda in
summer
Construction of the Nansen family's new home at
Polhøgda started in April 1900. In August 1901 the house was finished,
and Fridtjof Nansen moved in with his pregnant wife and three
children.
Nansen had drawn the construction plans himself, with the
professional assistance of architect Hjalmar Welhaven. Nansen wanted his new
house erected in a kind of "Norwegian castle style, in stone". Changes along
the way made the plans less castle-like, however, and more inspired by
Lawnhurst, the home of his friend Henry Simon near Manchester in England. By
giving Polhøgda a touch of English 'mansion', Nansen got a
representative and stately home with room for entertaining.
Externally
the mansion is reminiscent of the early Italian renaissance, whereas the shape
of the windows and the tower draw our thoughts to medieval Romantic churches
and castles.
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Polhøgda in
winter
Photo: Jan Dalsgaard Sørensen
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Polhøgda in
spring
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Courtyard
side
With main entrance.
Photo: Jan Dalsgaard
Sørensen
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Fridtjof Nansen's
grave
Fridtjof Nansen died at home, on 13 May 1930, while enjoying
the spring sun on the balcony seen in background of this photo.
Before
his death, Nansen had clearly expressed that he did not wish a church burial.
He wanted to be buried in the garden, under "my good birch tree", as he is
reported to have put it. In the early 1930s, private burials were not allowed
in Norway, and it took the Nansen family and the Norwegian Academy of Sciences
six years to obtain permission to establish a private tomb for the late
national hero.
Fridtjof Nansen's son, the architect Odd Nansen, had
prepared a plan for the tomb which was approved by the authorities. In the
spring of 1937 the urn containing Nansen's ashes was finally moved to the new
tomb, on the slope to the south of the house, and interred there with a simple
ceremony.
Photo: Jan Dalsgaard
Sørensen
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INTERIOR
PHOTOGRAPHS
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Ground floor living
room
The English mansion style is evident in the large central hall,
in two storeys with a gallery and an open fireplace.
Here, there were
frequent parties, large and small, for relatives and close friends. Eva
Nansen's in-house recitals were famous.
Almost all the furnishings,
paintings etc. at Polhøgda today have been acquired after the Second
World War.
Photo: Maryanne Rygg
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Upstairs
In
Nansen's time, there were bedrooms all along the gallery. Today, they provide
office space for researchers and staff of the Fridtjof Nansen
Institute.
Photo: Maryanne Rygg
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Dining
Room
With Erik Werenskiold's wall paintings illustrating the
Norwegian folk song "Liti Kjersti". (Detailed
photographs of the wall painting are found below.)
Photo:
Maryanne Rygg
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Ladies' Drawing
Room
With Erik Werenskiold's portrait of Fridtjof
Nansen.
Photo: Maryanne Rygg
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Fridtjof Nansen's study
room
The study room is situated in the tower, with a beautiful view
of Fornebu and the Oslo Fjord. When Nansen was at work there, there were
standing orders not to disturb him. The room has been preserved basically as it
was when he passed away in 1930.
Photo: Jan Dalsgaard
Sørensen
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DINING ROOM
WALL PAINTINGS
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The dining room is light and festive, in part thanks
to Erik Werenskiold's wall paintings (1904-1907), illustrating the Norwegian
folk song "Liti Kjersti". This folk song tells of little Kjersti who is seduced
by the Elf King, gives birth to his children, is spellbound and then drinks the
"drink of forgetfulness", thus losing all memory of her previous
life.
Photos: Jan Dalsgaard Sørensen
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THE EARLY
NANSEN: POLAR EXPLORER AND SCIENTIST
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Portrait,
1889
By L. Szacinski, Christiania's leading photographer at the time
and photographer to the Royal Court. It was only natural that he should also be
photographer to the Nansen family.
The large portrait hanging at
Polhøgda is dated 1896, but was actually taken in 1889, upon Nansen's
return from Greenland.
Photo: Jan Dalsgaard
Sørensen
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Portrait,
1893
Nansen ready for his great North Pole
expedition.
Drawing by Nansen's life-long friend Erik
Werenskiold.
Photocopy: Børre Høstland. © The
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
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Fram
expedition
Nansen's boots and knife, used during the 1893–96
Fram expedition in the Arctic Sea. The boots are on loan from the Fram Museum,
the knife has been donated by Norwegian actor Knut Wigert, who portrayed Nansen
in a 1968 movie.
Photo: Jan Dalsgaard
Sørensen
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Return from the
Arctic
After his miraculous rescue in 1896, Nansen travelled down
the Norwegian coast, receiving a hero's welcome at every port. Here he is seen
on board Sir George Baden-Powell's yacht Otaria, heading south towards
Tromsø. Nansen's wife Eva has come north to join
him.
Photo: Jan Dalsgaard Sørensen
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The heroes of
Fram
A memorial plaque to the participants of the Norwegian North
Pole Expedition 1893–1896.
Photo: Jan Dalsgaard
Sørensen
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Portrait,
1897
By London photographer Henry van der Weyde, taken in 1897, a
few months after the return of the Fram expedition.
Photocopy: Jan
Dalsgaard Sørensen
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Bathymetrical Chart of
Northern Polar Seas
by Dr Fridtjof Nansen
Throughout
the Fram expedition, Nansen kept the crew busy carrying out scientific
measurements, including ocean depth soundings. This bathymetrical map of the
Arctic Ocean was one of many scientific results published after their
return.
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Scientific
work
Nansen spent years going through the scientific results of the
Fram expedition, before publishing them in the 6-volume The Norwegian North
Polar Expedition 1893-1896: Scientific results edited by Fridtjof Nansen,
issued 1900-1906. This map showing Fram's progress through the Kara Sea is one
of several preliminary versions, with numerous handwritten corrections and
comments by Nansen.
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NANSEN'S
WIVES
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Eva
Nansen
Fridtjof Nansen married Eva Sars in 1889, and they had five
children together. She was a gifted opera singer as well as a pioneer of female
skiing. Her early death in 1907 was a hard blow to Nansen.
This
photograph was taken in Stockholm in 1895, during Eva's last concert tour.
Fridtjof Nansen kept it in his study room, where it can still be seen
today.
Photocopy: Jan Dalsgaard Sørensen
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Sigrun
Nansen
Sigrun Munthe became Fridtjof Nansens second wife in 1919,
but spent many unhappy and lonely days at Polhøgda while her husband
travelled widely on humanitarian and diplomatic missions.
It is believed
that Nansen and Sigrun had been romantically involved even before the death of
Eva Nansen. This lithograph was drawn by Nansen himself, probably around
1905.
Photocopy: Jan Dalsgaard Sørensen
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LATER YEARS:
DIPLOMAT AND HUMANIST
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Ambassador
After Norway became independent of Sweden
in 1905, Nansen became Norway's first envoy to the United Kingdom, living in
London from 1906 to 1908.
His ambassador's uniform is still preserved at
Polhøgda.
Photo: Jan Dalsgaard Sørensen |
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The Nansen
Passport
In 1921, Nansen devised the Nansen Passport, an identy card
for stateless refugees. The document was recognized by many European states,
and helped hundreds of thousands of stateless people to immigrate to a country
willing to receive them.
This specimen was issued by Bulgarian
authorities in 1928 to Russian refugee Pavel Kiprianovitch Kastorny, and
enabled him to travel to France to start a new life there.
Photo: Jan
Dalsgaard Sørensen
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Map of
Spitsbergen
Also in his later years, Nansen never lost his interest
in the North and in science. He drew this artistic map of Spitsbergen
(Svalbard) for his much delayed book A Journey to Spitsbergen in 1920.
With hand-written pencil notes.
Photocopy: Jan Dalsgaard
Sørensen
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Nobel Peace
Prize
"Peace Prize awarded to Fridtjof Nansen. He will use it for
international relief efforts. 'The next war will be the doom of
Europe'."
Morgenbladet (Oslo), 11 December
1922
Photocopy: Jan Dalsgaard Sørensen
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Self-portrait, Christmas
1924
"To John Gorovin(?)
with hearty good wishes for 1925, in
gratitude for his wholehearted and valuable colaboration in passed
years
from Fridtjof Nansen"
Photocopy: Jan Dalsgaard
Sørensen
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Portrait
Painted by Nansen's friend and neighbour,
the painter Erik Werenskiold, in 1938, eight years after Nansen's
death.
Photocopy: Jan Dalsgaard Sørensen
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Portrait
By
Erik Werenskiold, around 1924.
This drawing was discovered in the attic
in the 1980s, and is probably the only Nansen portrait that has been kept at
Polhøgda permanently since Nansen's days.
Photocopy: Jan
Dalsgaard Sørensen
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Portrait
By
Dagfin Werenskiold, son of Erik Werenskiold, probably in 1924.
Photo:
Jan Dalsgaard Sørensen
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Self-portrait,
1930
Lithograph, 1930. Authenticity attested by Fridtjof Nansen's
son Odd Nansen.
Photocopy: Jan Dalsgaard
Sørensen
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Nansen is
dead
"Professor Fridtjof Nansen suddenly passed away today at
noon due to heart failure in his home at Lysaker"
Aftenposten
(Oslo), 13 May 1930
Photocopy: Jan Dalsgaard
Sørensen
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All photographs may be reproduced freely on the
condition that the Fridtjof Nansen Institute and the photographer's name are
credited.
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