Rolf Stenersen

Vocation

Notable

Norwegian businessman, track and field athlete, art collector, non-fiction writer, essayist, novelist, playwright, and biographer. He was Norwegian champion in 200 metres in 1919 and 1920, and in 4 x 100 metres relay in 1920. He participated in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, where he competed in 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 x 100 metres relay. He was active on the stock market already as a teenager and earned a fortune aged 21 on shipping stocks. He graduated from Kristiania Commerce School in 1918, and studied at Queen's College, Oxford from 1922 to 1924. From 1925 he was running his own business, A/S Stenersen og Waage, which operated in the rubber business and the Dutch stock market. He was a friend of painter Edvard Munch from the 1920s, and came to be Munch's financial advisor. He was also a collector of his art work, and had one of the largest private collections of Munch's works. He wrote essays on artists such as Edvard Munch, Erik Harry Johannessen, Jakob Weidemann and, Paul Klee. He published books on economy, including "Penger og tall" ('Money and numbers'), in 1937. His début as a fiction writer was the short story collection "Godnatt da du" ('Goodnight, then, you'), in 1931. He donated his collection of Norwegian art to the municipality of Aker in 1936, from 1994 located in the Stenersen Museum in Oslo. His collection of foreign art was donated to the city of Bergen in 1971, and the exhibition was open to the public from 1978. He was appointed Knight 1st Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1953, and elevated to Commander in 1974. He received the St. Hallvard Medal from the city of Oslo in 1977. Stenersen died on 15 October 1978 in Bergen, Norway. He was 79. Link to Wikipedia biography