Jonas Lie (1880-1940)
The son of an American mother and a Norwegian father, Jonas Lie was born in Moss, Norway and first studied art in Paris, at age twelve, under the patronage of his namesake and uncle, the writer Jonas Lie, as well as among the inspired company of such other Norwegian luminaries as Edvard Grieg and Henrik Ibsen. The death of Lie’s father, however, interrupted these halcyon days, and the younger Jonas moved to Plainfield, New Jersey, with his mother in 1893.
After finishing school in 1897, Lie worked full time as a textile designer to support his mother and sisters, but continued his studies at night at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League. By 1901 he was already exhibiting his paintings, and by 1904 was garnering the first of the many prizes he would receive for his work.
In 1906, Lie returned for the first time to Norway, where he both renewed his family ties and abandoned his earlier Tonalist style, turning instead to a dramatic Impressionism of vigorous brushwork, rich color harmonies, and strongly assured design. Lie would soon apply this new style, to much acclaim, to such varied subjects as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal. Although he chose to live and work in the United States, and was later elected President of the National Academy of Design, Lie also made a habit of returning regularly to Norway to paint. Although Lie’s Norwegian scenes are today perhaps the least well-known of his paintings, they are often among his strongest.