St. Olaf College

Arne Berger

Contemporary painter
United States
1872 - 1951

View objects by this artist.

Arne Berger was born in Fagernes, Norway, in 1872. He first began his artistic endeavors in Norway, but they continued when he emigrated to the United States in the early 1890s. He moved between various cities before settling in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he was listed as working as an artist at the J.E. Burt Portrait Company in 1893. In 1894, he moved to Northfield, Minnesota, where he began his altar painting practice, and he remained there until 1903. That same year, he moved to Decorah, Iowa, where he continued his altar and portrait painting. Berger eventually married Henrietta Berg, the daughter of a schoolteacher near Decorah. He then moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1907, where he continued his practice until he settled back in Minneapolis in 1918, establishing a studio and distributing a catalogue and price list for commissions as well as restoration work and art instruction.

In 1925, Berger participated in the Norse-American Centennial Art Exhibit at the Minnesota State Fair in Minneapolis. He continued painting altar pieces well into the ‘20s and ‘30s, his last known work dated 1934 in Grace Lutheran Church in Fairmont, Minnesota. Many of his works are in collections in Norway. Berger died of heat stroke in Minneapolis in 1951.

Madison Duran ‘20
March 2019

Sources:
“Arne Berger.” ULAN Full Record Display (Getty Research), The Getty,
www.getty.edu/vow/ULANFullDisplay?find=arneberger&role=&nation=&prev_page=1&su
bjectid=500128857.
Elliot, Kate. “Arne Berger.” Luther College, www.luther.edu/fine-arts/artists/berger-arne/.