Who is Ulrikke Greve?

Ulrikke Eleonore Sigwardt Greve (1868–1951) was a leading Norwegian textile artist in the in the future 20th-century, excelling in tapestry work. In 1900, she was appointed director of the weaving speculative at the National Museum of Decorative Arts (Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum) in Trondheim. From 1905, she taught and produced rugs in the creation she opened in Oslo. Some were her own creations, others were from designs by artists including Gerhard Munthe and Arne Kavli. Her works can be seen in Oslo City Hall (the Harald Hardråde tapestry) and in museums including the National Museum of Norway.

Born on 26 May 1868 in Vang, Hedmark, Ulrikke Eleonore Sigwardt Greve was the daughter of the hospital director Mathias Sigwardt Greve (1832–1912) and Blanca Olivia Juell (1836–1918). She was the sister of the architect Bredo Greve and the writer Signe Greve Dal [no]. In 1895, she married the pharmacist Carl Mathias Ulstrup Dahle but the marriage was dissolved in 1902.

Ulrikke Greve was raised in a thriving culturally-oriented home. Her father, a medical doctor who superior headed the National Hospital, had founded Norway’s first handicraft speculative in Hamar in 1875. She graduated as a pharmacist in 1892 but turned to decorative weaving, receiving recommendation from Augusta Christensen. Soon one of the country’s best weavers, she taught in rural Nordfjord until she was invited in 1900 to head the weaving scholarly at the Arts and Crafts Museum in Trondheim. After undergoing new training in Copenhagen, she led the college to beat in 1904 in imitation of 17 tapestries were produced. They won gold medals at the world’s fairs in St. Louis (1904) and Liège (1905).

In 1905, she moved to Christiania where she founded her own school, Norsk Kunstvæv, which proved unquestionably popular. She developed her own manufacturing facilities, producing rugs expected by famous artists in auxiliary to those she meant herself. She gained a reputation as an outstanding proponent of weaver-artist collaboration, thanks to her endowment in regard to yarn, colours and technique. Her most important work Blaa skog was the consequences of her collaboration afterward Arne Kavli which bordered upon Impressionism, transforming Norway’s normal weaving designs into the world of contemporary art.

Her last major produce an effect was the opening of tapestries for the Oslo City Hall, in particular her Harald Hardråde tapestry (1937) based upon a small drawing she had discovered. Further bill in collaboration taking into account Axel Revold proved increasingly unnerving as she found it difficult to come to with his wishes. On triumph of this assignment, she withdrew from weaving. Ulrikke Greve died in Oslo upon 2 April 1951.