Ronnaug Petterssen the Artist and Her Dolls

Rønnaug Petterssen - The Artist and Her Dolls is a book about the celebrated Norwegian doll artist Rønnaug Petterssen born in northern Norway in 1901 and died in Oslo in 1979. The book is written in three sections; the first section a short, but compelling story about the life of the artist, her marriage to Hans Kunze, a German painter and photographer, the very difficult years around WWII in occupied Norway and continues on to describe her later life. The second section is about the workshop; how it began, then grew to become a force to be reckoned with very early on also internationally, how it survived the war years and how Petterssen re-established the workshop in 1946 to make it flourish again and go on to gain even greater international recognition. In the words of Aslaug Kvernberg, Editor of Norsk Husflid (Norwegian Handcrafts) in her article for Norwegian American Commerce (Winter 1973), “Norway has a cultural tradition in costumed doll making, thanks to one person in particular; Rønnaug Petterssen. Her dolls are like small works of art, enchanting miniature people, who are so much alive that young and old alike can’t resist being fascinated by them”. The third section describes in detail the many dolls and doll types Rønnaug Petterssen created during her forty year career, some not seen till now and how each doll type were made. This information is accompanied by more than 300 photographs, many taken by her husband during the early years and not seen till now. This detailed description has been designed to aid collectors and others in identifying the dolls they own or may wish to collect.