Frøydis Haavardsholm

1896–1984

The First Generation of Modern Norwegian Exlibris Artists

In 1942, when Otto Wang staged the modern Norwegian exlibris in his seminal book Norsk Ex Libris, his cast was entirely male, with two exceptions: Ingeborg Zimmer Blaauw and Frøydis Haavardsholm, who is represented with three exlibris even.

His careful selection of artists and exlibris supports his belief that there is something extraordinary about the Norwegian exlibris, something that distinguishes them from other Nordic ones and at the same time underlines their artfulness, quality and value.

Alle Frøydis Haavardsholms Ex Libris er fremragende. Hun er meget paavirket i sin Tegnemaade af visse Münchenkunstnere, men hendes specielle Tegnemaade er alligevel helt ægte norsk og original.¹

All of Frøydis Haavardsholm’s exlibris are outstanding. In her drawing style, she is much affected by certain Munich artists, however yet, her special way of drawing is genuinely Norwegian and original. (English translation by me.)

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Frøydis Haavardsholms Ex L. for Christoffer Berg-Hansen […] er kraftigt i sit Anslag. Og det er ægte norsk-norsk.²

Frøydis Haavardsholm’s exlibris for Christoffer Berg-Hansen […] is powerful in its impact. And this truly is Norwegian. (English translation by me.)

This is the first generation of modern exlibris and its artists, and a clear demarcation at the same time: Norway has awakened from its deep slumber and is now, with both industry and skill, entering the international exlibris scene.

Haavardsholm was a productive artist, trained at the influential Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry, and in 1942, she had made a name for herself. However, are we justified in saying that Haavardsholm was an exlibris artist? Are her exlibris representative of the Norwegian exlibris during the first peak, around 1940? And how does she navigate the delicate relationship between artist and exlibris owner, and to what extent do the exlibris she created bear her characteristic style?

In this post, I will shed light on Haavardsholm’s exlibris production and her position within the intricate network of exlibris artists, art commissioners, collectors, and leading voices in contemporary discourse.

The Accomplished Artist

In 1942, at age 46 and at the height of her productive phase, Haavardsholm was a well-known figure in the arts and crafts (Norwegian: kunstindustri) world.

She had illustrated important and widely used books: Martin Luther’s On the Freedom of a Christian in a new Norwegian translation (Om et kristenmenneskes frihet, 1917), the new edition of the altar book for the Norwegian State Church (Altarbok for Den norske kyrkja, 1920), the Gradual (Graduale, 1925), and the cycle of poems Jonsok Night (Jonsok-natt, 1933), written by her husband, Hans Henrik Holm, for which they were celebrated in the reviews.

After working primarily in illustration, she shifted her focus to glass painting and produced, most notably, the windows depicting the Crucifixion (Korsfestelsen, 1928) in Korskirken in Bergen and the five eight-meter-high windows in the choir of Trefoldighetskirken in Oslo (1933–35).

Textile art became yet another area of production, with patterns for interior textiles as well as ceremonial gowns for the Norwegian church. In 1940, she received the state stipend for artists, an annual sum paid until the end of her life and reserved for extraordinary accomplishment.

However, from the late 1930s onward, illness and economic worries affected Haavardsholm, and the divorce from Hans Henrik Holm in 1945 further exacerbated the situation. Although she later secured contracts to illustrate major works of Norwegian literature (Jonas Lie, Petter Dass) and to create another series of glass windows for Trefoldighetskirken, she struggled to complete these works. She led a reclusive life and died in Oslo in 1984 at the age of 88.³

As with so many influential women, we lack a proper biographical monograph for Frøydis Haavardsholm. Only recently has her work re-entered public and academic discourse: in 2019, Mats Lindner wrote a short piece on Haavardsholm as a versatile designer,⁴ and in 2025, Lene Fjørtoft delivered an evening talk at the National Museum of Norway,⁵ which holds a significant collection of her sketches and drafts. Publications in academic journals are scarce, with Lene Fjørtoft’s challenge to the art history canon and Haavardsholm’s re-introduction in Bokkunstneren Frøydis Haavardsholm from September 2025⁶ and Tone Rasch and Else Braut’s 2024 study on female textile and pattern designers at Th. Lunde and Hjula Væveri.⁷

Haavardsholm’s Exlibris Œuvre

Frøydis Haavardsholm was never explicitly an exlibris artist; she was a versatile artist who created several exlibris, and, judging from the few dated examples we know of, we may assume she produced them during a period of economic hardship. Nevertheless, she is one of only two women featured in Otto Wang’s Norske Exlibris (1942), and there she is sitting as an equal to the men.

In previous publications about her, like Thor B. Kielland‘s artist pamphlet about Frøydis Haavardsholm (1935) in the Gyldendals Små Kunstbøker series,⁸ exlibris are mentioned only once, in a subclause, related to her book illustrations:

[…] hun har levert interessante utkast og tenginger til så forsjellige spesialområder som frimerker, plakater, pengesedler, segl, ex-libris or adresser med mere. (p. 14)

[…] she created interesting drafts and sketches for such different special areas as postal stamps, posters, banknotes, seals, exlibris or business cards and more. (English translation by me.)

Two years earlier, in 1933, Aslak Torjussen didn’t even mention exlibris, although he includes two reproductions of motifs that also appear in her exlibris œuvre in his booklet Frøydis Haavardsholm og norsk leid i dekorativ kunst.⁹

We could also take the absence of a mention of exlibris in 1933 as an indicator of when Haavardsholm began taking commissions for bookplates: not before 1933. Two years later, in 1935, they are mentioned. Could this further our theory that she created them for economic reasons? Perhaps. We can assume, however, that she had already made exlibris before 1935, and that Kielland was aware of them.

Overview of Exlibris

Norwegian Exlibris Catalogue

I have cross-checked the Norske Exlibris Catalogue (1974), which lists 24 exlibris by Frøydis Haavardsholm.

Owner	Profession	Place	Date	In Collection
Andersen, Gudolf	direkt.	Oslo	1939
Apenes, Sissi	actress	ND	ND
Balstad, Sigurd	ND	ND	ND	AR ✔︎10
Berg-Hansen, Christopher	dir.	Oslo	ND	RNH ✔︎ Otto Wang✔︎
Bragstad, Sigurd Steinkjer	ND	ND	ND
Bryhn, Karin og Gunnar	agent	Oslo	1943	RNH ✔︎
Christiansen, Herman	H.s. advokat	ND	ND	RNH ✔︎
Dobloug, Mikkel	grosserer	Oslo	ND	RNH ✔︎
Giske, Randi og Arne	ND	ND	ND
Hannaas, Torleiv	prof.	Oslo	ND	RNH ✔︎ Bergen Public Library✔︎ Otto Wang✔︎
Hansen, Klaus	prof.	Oslo	1940	Otto Wang✔︎
Haavardsholm, Olav	ND	ND	ND
Kielland, Eugenia	frk. author	Oslo	1948	RNH ✔︎
Lindberg, Jens	ND	ND	ND	RNH ✔︎
Lunde, Einar	ND	ND	ND
Lundh, Arthur E.	Dr.	Oslo	ND	RNH ✔︎
Munch, Anna	ND	ND	ND
Møystad, Dag	ND	ND	ND
Rogstad, Inger-Helvig	art historian	ND	ND	RHN ✔︎ Bergen Public Library
Svarstad, Anne-Marie og Carsten	ND	Oslo	1945
Thoresen, Alf Egeberg	ND	ND	1945
Toftdahl, Marie og Wilhelm	ND	ND	ND	RNH ✔︎
Tveit, Nils	ND	ND	ND
Ørbeck, Anne Marie	pianist	ND	ND	Bergen Public Library

Nysted Heier Collection

There is one other, not mentioned in the catalogue, in Nysted Heier’s collection:

Falk, Arne

ND

ND

ND

RNH ✔︎11

Frederikshavn Art Museum

The Danish art-exlibris.net database, built on one of the largest exlibris collections in the world, has only one Haavardsholm exlibris, also not listed in the Norske Exlibris Catalogue:

Dalgard, Olav

ND

ND

ND

Jensen Tusch Collection, Kunstmuseum Fredrikshavn12

Olav Dalgard, author, filmmaker, and literary and art historian, published the first artist booklet on Frøydis Haavardsholm with Olaf Norlis Forlag in 1930.¹³ His exlibris depicts a large rock before which a large bird flies; the moon shines above, half hidden behind the rock.

A Mention in Norsk Exlibrisiana (1974)

Under section 7a, Norwegian Exlibrisiana in Denmark: Books, in the bibliography of Norwegian Exlibrisiana,¹⁴ Schyberg lists the following interesting publication that hints at yet another Haavardsholm exlibris:

E. O. A. Hedegaard “Militære Bogejermærker” Helsingör 1966 (Poul A. Andersen’s forlag)
Her er Fröydis Haavardsholm’s exlibris for Kurt O. Gisselfeld tatt med.

Here, Frøydis Haavardsholm’s exlibris for Kurt O. Gisselfeld, is included. (English translation by me.)

I have consulted the book thanks to a colleague who made a digital copy for me and wrote a post about the exlibris in question.

Open Questions

Today, we cannot say for sure how many exlibris Haavardsholm created during her productive period. I know of 26; there may be more. We do not have an œuvre list for her exlibris production.

The National Museum of Norway has a large collection of drafts and other materials by Haavardsholm; among them may be exlibris drafts or copies she kept for herself. I also wonder whether there are references to exlibris commissions in her correspondence and notes, which are scattered across many museums, libraries, and archives throughout Norway.¹⁵

Haavardsholm’s Exlibris Style

Artist Signature

How do we determine whether an exlibris was created by Haavardsholm when we encounter one?

Firstly, she always signs the exlibris with her distinctive signature, “FHM”, usually in the bottom right or bottom left corner of the motive, sometimes nestled into it.

Decorative Lettering

Another means of identification could be her distinct style, particularly in the lettering of names and the phrase “Ex Libris”. The letters’ serifs and bar ends are very long and pronounced, tittles are decoratively enhanced, much like those in her famous book illustrations.

Lene Fjørtoft (2025) describes Haavardsholm’s illustration style as a combination of modernity and medieval-inspired symbolism, which was perceived as both innovative and deeply Norwegian at the time. Haavardsholm developed a signature style inspired by both woodcuts (early modern and contemporary) and Jugendstil, and she was often compared to Gerhard Munthe’s influential neo-medievalism in book illustrations and other decorative work.

Creation and Reuse: Vignettes from Book Illustrations

I have traced several of Haavardsholm’s exlibris motifs to vignettes from the 1930s and earlier: either she aptly reused her famous illustrative work, or the exlibris owners requested a motif from one of her influential works in her particular style.

I’ve grouped the exlibris from my and Nysted Heier’s collection by motif. I am eager to find other exlibris and further explore her creative reuse.

Religious Motifs

Herman Christiansen’s exlibris, alluding to the parable of the sower, is the two-colour version of a vignette from the Altarbok for den Norske Kyrkja (1920), p. 89.

Arthur E. Lundh’s exlibris depicts the slaying of the lion (an iconographic symbol of fortitude), perhaps depicting the biblical figures Benaiah or David. This motif is reproduced in Aslak Torjussen’s 1933 book Frøydis Haavaardsholm og norsk leid i dekorativ kunst, p. 10. I believe it originates in the Graduale, but I cannot yet confirm this.

The Graduale, though digitised by the National Library of Norway, is not accessible online because the musical notation is not covered by the copyright agreement the library has with the Norwegian authors’ association, Kopinor.

Youth and Light

All motifs here are drawn from Jonsok-Natt 1933 (pp. 134, 11, 280). The illustrations to Hans Henrik Holm’s cycle of poems were highly regarded at the time. Haavardsholm’s illustrations helped interpret Holm’s text, which was written in an unfamiliar and difficult-to-understand Norwegian dialect.

While both Inger-Helvig Rogstad’s and Karin and Gunnar Bryhn’s exlibris motifs are unchanged, the young couple on Sigurd Balstad’s exlibris only closely resembles the couple on p. 280 in Jonsok-Natt, with significant modifications to the background.

This couple (a fair-haired boy and a raven-haired girl), holding hands and running, is a recurring motif that Haavardsholm drew in many variations. In Jonsok-Natt, they appear as an illustration of the poem Sylvbjøllur ringlar i høgaste nut. Among the digitised drafts and sketches in the Norwegian National Museum‘s collection, there is a draft for the vignette in Jonsok-Natt and a pre-study for the same vignette, both featuring the couple.

Deer

The spike-on-one-side stag at the waterside in the exlibris for Mikkel Dobloug (left picture) is taken from the 1934 edition of the illustrated family Bible (Illustrert Familiebibel), to which Haavardsholm contributed a few vignettes and ornaments. This peculiar animal, having shed only one of its antlers, reappears throughout Haavardsholm’s imagery in various interpretations.

The reindeer and calf at the waterside under the midnight sun in Marie and Wilhelm Toftdahl’s exlibris (middle picture) is similar to the one in Norske Gårdsbruk: Vestfold Fylke vol. 2 (1947), p. I, with the background changed to include mountains. The National Museum of Norway holds a draft of the version depicting the mountains and the midnight sun, dated around 1920, in its collection; it can be viewed online on the museum’s website. In this particular case, could it be that the exlibris was made first? I cannot say.

Eugenia Kielland’s exlibris is taken unchanged from p. 34 of Haavardsholm’s 1917 book-illustration masterpiece, On the Freedom of a Christian by Martin Luther. Here, the motif bears the inscription “Cum gratia dei” (with the praise of God) above the animal. While the book illustration is printed with black ink, Kielland’s exlibris is printed in a green-grey colour, similar to Sigurd Balstad’s.

Boats and Vikings

The three exlibris above, to my knowledge, were not taken directly from earlier illustrations. Christopher Berg-Hansen’s exlibris featuring a two-masted schooner on a churning sea alludes to the family’s strong connection to the sea and travel.

Journalist and newspaper editor Arne Falk‘s exlibris depicts a Viking boat sailing toward distant shores, while Torleiv Hannaas’ reminds one of Gerhard Munthe’s illustrations to the famous Snorre Storlason’s Norges Kongesagaer (1899) with a group of armoured men kindling a bonfire. Haavardsholm dedicated a copy of her 1917 masterpiece of book illustration, Martin Luther’s The Freedom of a Christian, bound in a blue handmade paper cover, to Arne Falk, an indicator of acquaintance or even friendship?

Exlibris with textual elements

Philologist and translator Jens Lindberg‘s exlibris stands out among the above: it is large and features both visual and textual elements in three languages: “Blind is the bookless man” in Norwegian, “Take No One’s Word” in Latin and a phrase in what I believe to be Persian, which I cannot read. Lindberg made a name for himself by translating Persian poetry into Norwegian. The top of the exlibris is dominated by a galloping unicorn.

The above exlibris is for Professor and Medical Doctor Klaus Hansen. It bears the Latin inscription Ingentio – Fortitudine – Perseverantia – not an uncommon motto in heraldic exlibris and family coats of armour – in a bouquet of flowering plants surrounding a medallion with three stars. I do not know which Klaus Hansen, MD, is the exlibris owner; there is a prominent person of that name, the pharmacologist and physician Klaus Hansen (1895-1971), but I cannot say for certain. This Klaus Hansen supported the Nazi German occupation of Norway and was heavily involved with Norsk-Tysk Selskap (not to be confused with the now-existing society of the same name).

Technical Production: Cliché Print

From what I have seen, Haavardsholm draws her preparatory studies with pencil and graphite, which she then develops into ink sketches and drawings. These are reproduced as clichés: a printing technology widely used in the first half of the 20th century, especially popular among Norwegian exlibris. Photochemically etched into zinc or copper plates, it enables easy reproduction using both book and newspaper printing technologies.

In the Nysted Heier Collection are a few original clichés, among them the still paper-wrapped cliché for Marie and Wilhelm Toftdahl’s exlibris.

When many printing workshops left Oslo after the 1950s, much of their inventory was discarded, as were most of the clichés. The Norwegian Printing Museum and Canning Museum in Stavanger has a representative collection of printing technology and equipment from the heyday of the Norwegian printing industry, and I wonder what they have in their collection that can tell us more about the production of exlibris in Norway in the 1930s and 1940s.

Once Modern, Now Stuffy

I believe it was exactly the particular style of Haavardsholm, this close interconnection between neo-medievalism, stylised Norwegian folk art, and Christian-religious motifs that led to her sudden disappearance.

The war and the occupation had left a mark on all aspects of public life, and especially art and design. The once-modern style had acquired a bad taste, also because of its close association with Nazi symbolism and imagery.

As Lene Fjørtoft suggests as an explanation for Haavardsholm’s disappearance from the art (history) discourse in her 2025 article,¹⁶ the idea of what is considered art, and of its purpose, function, and meaning, changed drastically after the Second World War. Influence was drawn from across the Atlantic, less from continental Europe, and the Arts and Crafts, with its taste for book illustration and decoration, were considered of less value than individualistic, abstract art “for the sake of art”.

The deep Christian-religious imagery of Haavardsholm, too, fell out of taste in a society that was quickly to become secularised and embraced a vastly different lifestyle and mindset.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, Haavardsholm had the flaw of being a woman: Already having to fight for her rights as a female artist in a deeply patriarchal society, she was stripped of her social status after her divorce, further impacted by her illnesses, and shut herself off. Her punishment, that she shared with so many of her gender, was to be forgotten.

Let us hope that shedding light on her production of exlibris and her contribution to the Norwegian exlibris as a cultural phenomenon helps right past wrongs and puts Haavardsholm back on the stage.

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References

1. Quote from Otto Wang Norske Ex Libris. København 1942, p. 18. ↩︎
2. Quote from Otto Wang Norske Ex Libris. København 1942, p. 21 ↩︎
3. With my biographical summary, I draw heavily on Haverkamp, Frode Ernst, and Mats Linder. ‘Frøydis Haavardsholm’. In Store norske leksikon. 25 March 2025. https://snl.no/Fr%C3%B8ydis_Haavardsholm. ↩︎
4. matslinder. ‘FRØYDIS HAAVARDSHOLM – POTENT FORMGIVNING’. Mats Linder, 7 December 2019. https://www.matslinder.no/2019/12/08/froydis-haavardsholm-potent-formgivning/. ↩︎
5. Fjørtoft, Lene. ‘Kunsten er nå: I skyggene av de store: Frøydis Haavardsholm’. Museum Website. Nasjonalmuseet, 22 October 2025. https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/utstillinger-og-arrangementer/nasjonalmuseet/arrangementer/2025/10/kunsten-er-na-i-skyggene-av-de-store-froydis-haavardsholm/. ↩︎
6. Fjørtoft, Lene. ‘Bokkunstneren Frøydis Haavardsholm’. Numer. Tidsskrift for Tegning, Illustrasjon Og Bokkunst, no. 138 (September 2025): 39–45. https://nva.sikt.no/registration/019b2c3547c6-e43aa8cb-c26a-46ec-8c51-740354836001. ↩︎
7. Rasch, Tone, and Else Braut. ‘Bak Gardinene. Kvinnelige Mønstertegnere Hos Th. Lunde Og Hjula Væveri 1910–1938’. Norsk Museumstidsskrift 10, nos 1–2 (2024): 22–37. https://doi.org/10.18261/mus.10.1-2.3. ↩︎
8. Kielland, Thor B. Frøydis Haavardsholm. Gyldendal, 1935. https://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2017052307135. ↩︎
9. Interestingly, this book is listed in Thor Bjørn Schyberg’s Norsk Exlibrisiana bibliography among the exlibris portfolios and monographs (p. 7) with the following addition: “Her er tatt med endel av hennes exlibris.” (Here, some of her exlibris are included.) Though Torjussen mentions no exlibris, not even in the captions of the motifs he reproduces. Schyberg, who knew Haavardsholm’s ex exlibris œuvre, probably recognised the motifs and therefore included the book in his bibliography. ↩︎
10. In two colour variations: moss green and grey. ↩︎
11. Also in NELS Mappe no. 7. ↩︎
12. The exlibris can be viewed in the database art-exlibris.net via this link: http://art-exlibris.net/responsive/exlibris/21827 ↩︎
13. Dalgard, Olav. Frøydis Haavardsholm. Olaf Norlis Forlag, 1930. https://www.nb.no/items/d28f274cc168ab5ff196698bbc142c5f?page=19&searchText=altarbok%20haavardsholm.
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14. Schyberg, Thor Björn. Norsk Exlibrisiana. Bibliografi over norsk exlibrislitteratur (frem til 1. januar 1975). Exlibris-publikation 113. Exlibristen, 1975. ↩︎
15. At the University of Bergen Library: some letters to Aagot and Per Kramer; at KODE Bergen: some letters to Nikolai Astrup; some to her husband, Hans Holm, in his private archive at Riksarkivet. ↩︎
16. Fjørtoft, Lene. ‘Bokkunstneren Frøydis Haavardsholm’. Numer. Tidsskrift for Tegning, Illustrasjon Og Bokkunst, no. 138 (September 2025): 39–45. https://nva.sikt.no/registration/019b2c3547c6-e43aa8cb-c26a-46ec-8c51-740354836001. ↩︎

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