Jens Thiis


Jens Thiis was a Norwegian art historian, conservator and a prominent museum director. He was conservator at the Nordenfjeld Industrial Arts Museum in Trondheim beginning in 1895 and director of the National Gallery in Oslo from 1908 to 1941.

Biography

Jens Peter Thiis was born at Kongshavn in Aker, Norway. He was the son of Abraham Bøckmann Thiis and Emma Marie Löwegren. Thiis grew up with his mother's parents, goldsmith H. P. Löwegren and his wife in Kristiania. He graduated artium at Aars og Voss' skole in 1888. Thiis was a student at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry where he trained under artist Christen Brun and academy director Wilhelm Holter. He studied art history under Lorentz Dietrichson followed by study trips in Germany, Italy, Belgium and France from 1892–96.
He was unusually alert to the trends of his time. In 1907, when at the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim, he engaged Henry van de Velde, now considered one of the foremost stylists of his time, to design an Art Nouveau display room and all its furniture and furnishings. The Henry van de Velde Room is unique in its kind, being specially designed for this purpose. It was later recreated on the premises of the new Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum. As director of the National Gallery he bought French contemporary art and thus made a solid base for the French collection that is now one of the gallery's main attractions.

Personal life

In 1895, he married Ragna Vilhelmine Dons. Thiis was the father of historian Ragna Thiis Stang and architect Helge Thiis. Jens Thiis was appointed as a knight of 1st class in the Order of St. Olav in 1911 and made commander in 1937. He held a large number of foreign orders, including the French Legion of Honour and the Order of the Polar Star and Order of Vasa. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters as well as of several foreign art and science academies. He was awarded honorary citizenship of Florence for his works on the Florentine Renaissance. Thiis died during 1942 and was buried at Vestre gravlund in Oslo

Authorship