Oscar Reynert Olsen

Oscar Reynert Olsen was born in Stavanger, Norway, on 23 May 1925. He took his examen artium, the Norwegian university entrance examination, at Kongsgård school in Stavanger in 1947.

He then trained as an artist in Oslo, first at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry (Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole) from 1950 to 1954, and then at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts (Statens kunstakademi) from 1954 to 1957.

Olsen worked as an illustrator for the newspaper Arbeiderbladet from 1952 to 1958, and he is included in the reference work Norske Avistegnere on Norway's newspaper artists. He later worked as an illustrator in Southeast Asia from 1958 to 1960 and in Kenya from 1966 to 1971.

His working life was unusually varied. According to the NTB obituary, he worked as a freelance graphic artist for NRK, as a court illustrator, book illustrator, postage stamp artist, editor and associate professor. His book work included woodcuts for Johan Falkberget's novel series Nattens brød, and in 2002 he drew stamps for Posten showing obedient elephants and juggling clowns on a tightrope. He also carried out several public decoration commissions.

From 1976 to 1995 he taught on the graphic arts line at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry, and he also taught at the private Mosebekk school in Oslo. He was editor of Numer, the journal of the Norwegian illustrators' association Tegnerforbundet.

He took part many times in the Autumn Exhibition and the Western Norway Exhibition and had a long series of solo and group exhibitions. He served on Arts Council Norway's purchasing committee, the national jury and the National Gallery's purchasing committee. His work is held by the National Museum of Norway, the former Museum of Contemporary Art, Riksgalleriet, Arts Council Norway, the Storting, Stavanger Faste Galleri and Rogaland Art Museum, and the City of Oslo art collection. Works in the National Museum include the painting Drager and the drawing Svermere I.

Olsen stayed active as an artist into very old age. In summer 2014 he held a retrospective solo exhibition at Galleri Oscarsborg on Oscarsborg Fortress, and in 2015 a jubilee exhibition at Avistegnernes Hus, the newspaper artists' house in Drøbak. In his hundredth year he set aside pen and brush for health reasons, though he still contributed selected lithographs to the Christmas salon at Galleri Grotten in Oslo.

He was married and had three children and three grandchildren.

Oscar Reynert Olsen died on Thursday 1 October 2026, at the age of 101. His family announced the death in a statement to the Norwegian news agency NTB on Sunday 4 October 2026, and the news was carried by VG and other Norwegian media. The place and cause of death were not made public. He was survived by his wife, three children and three grandchildren.

Across more than seventy years, Olsen's drawings reached Norwegians through newspapers, books, television graphics, courtrooms and postage stamps, while his paintings and prints entered the country's major public collections. As a teacher at the national craft and art academy for nearly two decades, and as an editor and committee member, he also helped shape the next generations of Norwegian illustrators and the institutions that supported them. His work is remembered for its fresh colours, free line, stylised forms and striking compositions.