Olaf Gulbransson

 

Olaf Leonhard Gulbransson (Oslo, May 26, 1873 - Tegernsee, September 18, 1958) was a Norwegian artist, painter and designer, known mainly for his caricatures and illustrations.

Beginning in the 1890s, he worked for a number of Norwegian magazines, including Tyrihans, Pluk, Paletten, Fluesoppen, Sfinx and Trangviksposten (between 1899 and 1901). In 1900 he studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris. In 1902 he moved to Germany to work at the satirical magazine Simplicissimus in Munich, as the author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, looking for Norwegian talent, was in contact with the publisher Albert Langen. Publicity raised Gulbransson's fame, and although he lived in Germany between 1923 and 1927, he drew for the Oslo newspaper Tidens tegn. In 1929 he became a professor at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. In 1933 the Berlin University of the Arts organized a special exhibition to celebrate Gulbransson's 60th birthday, which was closed down by the Nazi Party after only two days.

Gulbransson illustrated numerous books, including the children's book Det var engang (Once Upon a Time), which was published simultaneously in Norway and Germany (Es war einmal, ed. R.Piper & Co. Verlag, München) in 1934 , and Und so weiter (And so on), published in Germany in 1954.

Gulbransson's cartoons are characterized by a defined, precise line, and reject the decorative style portrait art typical of the time. He is considered by most Norwegians to be one of the leading cartoonists of the century.