A walk with Henrik Ibsen

After 27 years of self-imposed exile further south in Europe, Henrik Ibsen moved to Oslo in 1891. Being at this point an internationally renowned writer, he was a welcome addition to the capital's cultural life.

Ibsen first found an apartment in the fashionable quarter Victoria Terrasse, where he stayed until the autumn of 1895. He found himself well suited here, and often hosted dinner parties for other Norwegian notables. In his modest study, he wrote The Master Builder and Little Eyolf. 

In the autumn of 1895, Henrik Ibsen moved into an apartment in Arbins gate, with a view to the Royal Palace Park. Curious spectators at times gathered outside his window, hoping for a glimpse of the famous writer. This is where he would write John Gabriel Borkmann and his very last play, When We Dead Awaken. 

Soon after he arrived in Oslo, Ibsen started taking daily walks down to Oslo's Grand Café – like he had previously done in other European cities. The time of departure and route were always the same, creating a predictability that made the walking author a living tourist attraction.

We now follow in Ibsen's footsteps through the city centre, pausing to enjoy a few tidbits about him and his Oslo along the way. 

Out the door in Arbins gate

Every day at the same hour Ibsen would leave his flat in Arbins gate 1. A few meters from his doorstep ran Drammensveien, today appropriately named Henrik Ibsen’s street, which he followed towards the city centre.

What the old writer was pondering while he walked through his fashionable neighbourhood one can only speculate, but he certainly had quite a career to look back upon.

Ibsen's accomplishments are hard to overstate. He has been named a founder of  the prose drama and modern theatre. He is mentioned in the same breath as Shakespeare, and has been an important source of influence for Joyce, Shaw, and O’Neill, to mention some. His writings are translated into 78 languages (and counting), and his plays have been staged across the globe. 

Passing by the National Theatre

The National Theatre in Oslo opened in 1899. Ibsen had earlier thrown his support behind building the theatre here, right in the heart of Oslo, and could follow its completion as he walked by.

Outside the venerable theatre building, you'll see Stephan Sinding's sculptures of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Henrik Ibsen, which created quite a stir when they were unveiled in 1899. In fact, the critique was so bad that Sinding fled the country and applied for Danish citizenship.

Ibsen took it all gracefully and thought that his sculpture was better than Bjørnson's.

The rivalry between these two giants in Norwegian literature is well known, but their friendship was also very strong. After Ibsen had a difficult time as artistic director of Kristiania Norske Theater, it was Bjørnson who helped him back on his feet and encouraged him to move abroad.

As Ibsen’s works became famous all over the world, Bjørnson was the one who managed to unite the Norwegian people with his dedication to refugees, world injustice and social inequality. The sculptures in front of the National Theatre depict Ibsen as a closed man peering down at his shoes, while Bjørnson, as a leader, looks out with a full overview.

Today, the National Theatre prides itself in being the world's foremost Ibsen laboratory, where his plays continue to be interpreted and reinterpreted, elevated and trivialized, deconstructed and reconstructed.

Walking down Oslo's main street

At the turn of the 19th century Oslo’s main street Karl Johan was the stomping ground of the city's middle and upper classes. Walking down Karl Johan, Ibsen must have met exactly the kind of people who figure in his most famous plays.

Ibsen is known for having ridden the theatre of knights, fairies, witches, queens, and similar characters, caught in unlikely plots. Rather, in plays such as A Doll's House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, and The Wild Duck, he brings us into regular people’s living rooms and points his pen straight at the bourgeois life and its many carefully guarded, dark secrets. He challenged the newly liberalized Europe to examine its hypocrisy and vices, causing outrage as well as amazement.

Checking the time

On Karl Johan street, Ibsen always made a stop in front of the clock which hung (and still hangs) in the window of the university's main building.

He would confirm that he was on schedule, and also made sure his pocket watch was running correctly. Ibsen’s watch was a Waterbury, so it was not particularly flashy. But he was more concerned that it got the job done.

The walking writer had become an attraction in Kristiania, which Oslo was called at the time, and he was often surrounded by people who wished to touch or talk to him. But the playwright was a shy man and unable to “undress his soul” in front of strangers.

Entering Grand Café

Precisely at noon every day, Henrik Ibsen entered the doors of Grand Café. He had his own table, and he would order the same two items – a cold beer and a schnapps.

Ibsen justified the visits to Grand Café with its extensive selection of foreign newspapers.

Grand Café was a popular hangout with bohemians and artists at the time, and many people found it uncharacteristic that Ibsen would visit a place like this. But he was inspired by his encounters with Edvard Munch and other progressives who frequented the place. 

Just like today, Grand Café was located diagonally across the Norwegian Parliament Building. Ibsen refused the label "political". His mission was to ask the questions, not to answer them. Despite having written plays like A Doll's House, he stated clearly that he should not be thanked for having consciously worked for the women's cause.

He wasn't even fully aware of what the women's cause really was. To Ibsen, it was all just a human cause.