RetroDag

From the pharmacy in Grimstad and the son he never knew to voluntary exile, public funding, rented homes and a portrait used in soap advertising.

Henrik Ibsen entered literary history as one of the founders of modern theatre. His biography, however, is less solemn than the statues and official portraits suggest: he was an apprentice pharmacist, had a son outside marriage, never entered university, lived for years with very little money and left Norway a disappointed man. Later, after becoming famous, he placed considerable value on orders and decorations, while his face was even used in advertising.

Grimstad: Apprentice Pharmacist, Poet and Father at Eighteen

Ibsen arrived in Grimstad in late 1843 or early 1844. He was fifteen and was expected to become a pharmacist. He first worked as an apprentice at Jens Arup Reimann’s pharmacy. The work was demanding: at times, he had to get up during the night to serve customers. After the pharmacy was sold, he passed the required professional examination and, from 1847, worked as an assistant to the pharmacist Lars Nielsen.

Memories of the young Ibsen vary. Some describe him as withdrawn and sullen. One man who had been a child in Grimstad later recalled that the boys disliked him because he gave them too little liquorice for their money, and that he had heard Ibsen laugh heartily only once. Other recollections show him taking part in practical jokes, drawing caricatures and writing satirical verses about townspeople. The story that other young people “baptised” him in the snow also comes from memoirs, but such late recollections do not carry the same weight as contemporary documents.

In 1846, at the age of eighteen, Ibsen became a father. The child’s mother was Else Sophie Jensdatter Birkedalen, one of Reimann’s maids and about ten years older than Ibsen. Their son, Hans Jacob Hendrichsen Birkedalen, was born on 9 October 1846. Ibsen acknowledged paternity in a declaration to the town magistrate and was required to pay maintenance until the boy reached the age of fourteen.

There is no evidence that Ibsen took part in his son’s life. Accounts of a single meeting in Kristiania more than forty years later are anecdotal and far less securely documented than the records of paternity and child support. Hans Jacob worked, among other things, as a blacksmith and violin maker and lived in modest circumstances.

The claim that Ibsen “was sentenced to hard labour” must be phrased more carefully. A biographical timeline based on an older version of the Norwegian Biographical Dictionary states that, in June 1851, after failing to pay child support, he was summoned to forced labour at Akershus Fortress. The source does not establish that he actually reported or served such a sentence. The cautious formulation is: he was summoned to forced labour because of child-support arrears, but there is no evidence that he actually reported or served the sentence.

Brynjolf Bjarme and His Literary Beginnings

Ibsen’s first published text was not Catiline, but the poem “I Høsten” – “In Autumn” – printed in the newspaper Christiania-Posten on 28 September 1849. It appeared under the pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme. In the 1853 poem “Byggeplaner” – “Building Plans” – Ibsen recalled the pleasure of seeing his first poem in print.

Catiline was also published under this name. He had written the play during the winter of 1848–1849, largely at night in the pharmacy’s duty room. His friend Ole Carelius Schulerud financed the printing with money from an inheritance and with borrowed funds. The book was printed by F. Steens and sold on commission through the bookseller P. F. Steensballe. It appeared on 12 April 1850.

The figures usually repeated – 250 copies printed and 45 sold – are not completely certain. Contemporary sources suggest a print run of approximately 205–250 copies, possibly somewhat larger, while first-year sales have been estimated at anything from fewer than 30 to around 45 copies. What is certain is that the debut was not a commercial success.

The University He Never Entered

In 1850, Ibsen moved to Christiania and attended Heltberg’s school, known as the “student factory”, to prepare for the examen artium. Poor results in Greek and arithmetic prevented him from matriculating at university. He did not retake the examination and never received a university education.

The theatre instead became his practical school. From 1851 to 1857, he worked at Det norske Theater in Bergen, where he wrote plays, participated in productions, worked on sets and learned the mechanics of the stage. He later continued at the Norwegian theatre in Christiania. He was not an actor. His work as a director was not always appreciated, and the actress Lucie Wolf remembered him as a shy and silent man who kept his distance from the others.

Two Sons, Two Very Different Lives

Ibsen had one son with his wife, Suzannah Thoresen. Sigurd was born in 1859, studied law in Munich and Rome, earned a doctorate and entered politics. From 1903 to 1905, he served as Norway’s prime minister in Stockholm, meaning that he headed the Norwegian section of the government during the union with Sweden.

Hans Jacob and Sigurd were half-brothers, but they did not grow up together and did not share the same social position. Their education, professions and public standing were very different.

Why Ibsen Left Norway

Ibsen was not expelled. He left voluntarily on 5 April 1864, using a travel grant awarded by the Norwegian state the previous year. His departure had several causes.

First, his professional and financial situation had become extremely difficult. The Norwegian theatre in Christiania went bankrupt in 1862, leaving Ibsen without a regular income. He was in debt, faced criticism and could not yet support himself through his plays.

Second, he felt neglected by Norway’s cultural institutions and its public. His requests for support had been rejected or reduced, and in 1863 he received only 400 speciedaler – less than half the amount he had requested – for a study trip to Italy and Germany.

Third, the war of 1864 between Denmark and the alliance of Prussia and Austria came as a political shock. Ibsen had supported Scandinavian solidarity and regarded Norway and Sweden’s neutrality towards Denmark as cowardice and hypocrisy. Political disappointment was not the sole reason for his departure, but it accelerated it.

He reached Rome in early summer 1864. Suzannah and Sigurd joined him in September. What began as a journey partly financed by the state became 27 years of voluntary exile, spent mainly in Rome, Dresden and Munich. He returned to Norway permanently in 1891.

How He Supported Himself

His finances remained precarious at first. The travel grant could not fund 27 years abroad and was not even sufficient for a comfortable life in the short term. Ibsen depended on limited savings, loans, help from friends and income from publications. Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson supported him directly and intervened on his behalf.

The decisive change came in 1866, after the success of the dramatic poem Brand. That year, the Norwegian Parliament awarded him an annual poet’s stipend of 400 speciedaler. This should not be confused with the one-off travel grant of 1863, although the sum was the same.

From 1866, Ibsen had three increasingly stable sources of income:

1. the annual state stipend;
2. fees and royalties paid by the publisher Frederik Hegel at Gyldendal;
3. the growing sales of his books, particularly after Brand and Peer Gynt.

In the following years, new editions and international success radically improved his finances. Ibsen therefore did not live for 27 years on a grant alone. Public support was important, but publishing income eventually became the basis of his prosperity.

What 400 Speciedaler Meant

The speciedaler was Norway’s currency before the introduction of the krone. Under the monetary reform, one speciedaler was set equal to four kroner. Therefore:

400 speciedaler = 1,600 Norwegian kroner at the nominal 1875 value.

There is no single “exact” conversion into today’s money, because comparisons can be based on prices, wages, gold or the sum’s share of an annual income. If we use only inflation and the legal conversion of 1875, one krone from 1875 was worth approximately 81.47 kroner in September 2025. This gives:

1,600 × 81.47 = approximately 130,000 Norwegian kroner in 2025 purchasing power.

A comparison with wages better illustrates the social weight of the sum. At a daily wage of roughly three kroner for a worker in 1875, 1,600 kroner represented more than 530 working days. It was not a fortune that could support someone for life, but it was substantial annual support for a writer.

The present-day institutional equivalent is not the figure of 130,000 kroner, but a similar public programme. In 2026, the working grant under Norway’s Statens kunstnerstipend is 342,193 Norwegian kroner per year. It is awarded through a competitive application process and may be granted for between one and five years. Longer grants are also available to established artists. This is the appropriate comparison in terms of the type of support, not purchasing power.

In short:

– The approximate monetary value of 400 speciedaler is around NOK 130,000 in 2025 money.
– The present-day institutional equivalent is a state working grant for artists of NOK 342,193 per year in 2026.

How Many Homes Did He Rent?

There is no single definitive total, because Ibsen also stayed in hotels, guesthouses and summer residences, sometimes for short periods. If we count only documented urban apartments where he lived for longer periods after leaving Norway, excluding hotels and seasonal stays, we find at least ten rented homes abroad:

Period| City| Documented address
1864–1868| Rome| Via Capo le Case 55, now associated with Via Francesco Crispi 55
1868–1869| Dresden| An der Frauenkirche 6
1869–1871| Dresden| Königsbrücker Straße 33, later renumbered 71
1871–1872| Dresden| Dippoldiswalder Gasse 7
1872–1875| Dresden| Wettiner Straße 22, now Schweriner Straße
1875–1877| Munich| Schönfeldstraße 17, a furnished sublet with the Glas family
1877–1878| Munich| Schellingstraße 30, later renumbered 53
1878–1880| Rome| Via Gregoriana 46
1880–1885| Rome| Via Capo le Case 75
1885–1891| Munich| Maximilianstraße 32, a furnished sublet with the Neu family

These were followed by two apartments in Christiania after his return to Norway:

– Victoria Terrasse 7B, 1891–1895;
– Arbins gate 1, 1895–1906.

The cautious total is therefore at least twelve long-term rented homes after his departure in 1864: ten in Italy and Germany, and two after his return to Norway. Working stays on Ischia and in Sorrento, Amalfi, Gossensass and other places are not included.

Peer Gynt: The Success That Changed His Life

Ibsen began writing Peer Gynt in Rome in January 1867. He wrote the first two acts there and the third in Casamicciola on the island of Ischia. After the earthquake of 14 August, he moved to Sorrento and completed the final two acts on 14 October. The first edition of 1,250 copies was published in Copenhagen in November and quickly sold out.

The claim that the final act was written in exactly 25 days is frequently repeated, but the documented chronology supports a more cautious statement: the final two acts were completed in roughly two months, between mid-August and 14 October 1867.

Ibsen would read his new plays aloud to his wife and son before publication. Suzannah and Sigurd were his first listeners and critics, a practice also described in family memoirs.

He Mostly Read Newspapers

Ibsen was not known as an avid reader of books. His biographers note that in later life he mainly read newspapers and, to a lesser extent, the Bible, which he was careful to say he valued for its language. The remark that he left book reading to Suzannah and Sigurd comes from a conversation recorded later and should be treated as an anecdote, not a complete inventory of his reading.

“Ghosts”: Scandal, Returns and Sales

Ghosts was published in December 1881 and met with hostility because of its subjects: venereal disease, religious hypocrisy, adultery and heredity. The Cammermeyer bookshop in Christiania returned 500 copies to the publisher, helping to create the legend of a total failure.

Research into the Gyldendal and Cammermeyer archives, however, shows that this legend is exaggerated. Maria Purtoft’s study demonstrates that the play sold far better than literary histories based chiefly on scandalised reviews might suggest. The return did take place, but Ghosts was not a commercial disaster.

A famous anecdote has King Oscar II reproaching Ibsen for the play while praising Lady Inger of Østråt instead. Ibsen is said to have replied: “Your Majesty, I had to write Ghosts!” The episode comes from memoirs and should be read as an anecdote, not an official transcript.

Strindberg and Freud

August Strindberg never met Ibsen. In private letters, he alternated between admiration, irritation and a desire to meet him, calling him, in a phrase that later became famous, “the most furious man in Europe”. Their relationship was one of rivalry at a distance, not personal friendship.

Nor can the claim that Ibsen was Sigmund Freud’s “favourite playwright” be demonstrated. It is certain, however, that Freud read his work closely. In the 1916 essay “Some Character-Types Met with in Psycho-Analytic Work”, he analysed Rebecca West in Rosmersholm. He also referred to other Ibsen plays. The connection between Ibsen’s drama and psychoanalysis is real, but the phrase “Freud’s favourite” remains a simplification.

Orders and Decorations

Ibsen criticised authority, conformity and public morality, yet placed considerable value on official recognition. He received several Norwegian and foreign orders and wore them proudly. He actively sought the Danish Order of the Dannebrog, explaining that a Danish distinction would strengthen his position in Norway. After receiving it, he wrote to his publisher that Norwegians would now consider his poetry collection twice as good.

His interest in decorations contrasts with the image of Ibsen as an anti-authoritarian writer.

Ibsen and Soap Advertising

Ibsen did not write advertising copy for soap, and there is no evidence that he personally created such campaigns. What can be documented is the use of his portrait in advertising.

By the 1890s, his face had become recognisable throughout Europe: the beard, sideburns, glasses and stern expression. His photographs circulated in newspapers, periodicals, books, postcards, cartes de visite and cabinet cards. Manufacturers began using these portraits on commercial materials, much as companies use celebrity images today.

Among the surviving examples is a German advertising card featuring Ibsen’s portrait for Esser’s Seifenpulver, a soap powder. Studies of Ibsen’s celebrity show that his image was also used to promote other products. There is, however, no evidence that the playwright designed the advertisement, consented to the use of his image or was paid for it. More precisely: Ibsen did not “make soap advertisements”; his portrait was used in advertisements and on commercial trade cards.

Ibsen and the Women’s Rights Movement

On 26 May 1898, the Norwegian Women’s Rights Association held a celebration in Ibsen’s honour. In his response to the toast, he declined the description of himself as a conscious campaigner for the movement. He said he had not worked programmatically for the “women’s cause” and that, to him, it had been a human question. He concluded: “My task has been the portrayal of human beings.”

Ibsen did not say that women’s rights were unimportant, nor that Nora cannot be read from a feminist perspective. He said that his plays did not begin with a party programme or doctrine. The claim that he simply feared feminists would appropriate his work goes further than the evidence allows. What is certain is that he refused to reduce his drama to a single cause.

Selected Bibliography and Verified Sources

Books and Studies

1. de Figueiredo, Ivo. Henrik Ibsen: The Man and the Mask. Translated by Robert Ferguson. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2019.

2. Finney, Gail. “Ibsen and Feminism”. In James McFarlane (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen, pp. 89–105. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. DOI: “10.1017/CCOL0521411661.006” (https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521411661.006).

3. Freud, Sigmund. “Some Character-Types Met with in Psycho-Analytic Work” (1916). In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. XIV, pp. 309–333. London: Hogarth Press, 1957.

4. Fulsås, Narve and Tore Rem (eds.). Ibsen in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.

5. Haave, Jørgen. Familien Ibsen. Trondheim: Museumsforlaget, 2017.

6. Ibsen, Bergliot. The Three Ibsens: Memories of Henrik Ibsen, Suzannah Ibsen and Sigurd Ibsen. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1952.

7. Larsen, Peter. “Celebrity”. In Narve Fulsås and Tore Rem (eds.), Ibsen in Context, pp. 136–146. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. DOI: “10.1017/9781108381130.021” (https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108381130.021).

8. Meyer, Michael. Ibsen: A Biography. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1974.

9. Purtoft, Maria. “Gengangere var i virkeligheden en bestseller: En boghistorisk undersøgelse af Henrik Ibsens skandaløse skuespil”. Edda, vol. 106, no. 2, 2019, pp. 110–126. DOI: “10.18261/issn.1500-1989-2019-02-03” (https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1500-1989-2019-02-03).

10. Templeton, Joan. “The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen”. PMLA, vol. 104, no. 1, 1989, pp. 28–40. DOI: “10.2307/462329” (https://doi.org/10.2307/462329).

Documentary Editions, Museums and Institutions

11. Haugsevje, Olav. “”Henrik Ibsen i Grimstad” (https://www.gbm.no/ibsenmuseet/no/artikler/henrik-ibsen-i-grimstad/)”. Ibsen Museum, Grimstad / Aust-Agder Museum and Archive. Accessed 21 August 2026.

12. Henrik Ibsens skrifter, University of Oslo. “”Catilina: tilblivelse og utgivelse” (https://www.ibsen.uio.no/DRINNL_C1%7Cintro_publication.xhtml)”; “”Dikt: bakgrunn” (https://www.ibsen.uio.no/DIKTINNL_Dikt%7Cintro_background.html)”; “”Tidstavle” (https://www.ibsen.uio.no/tidstavle.xhtml)”. Digital historical-critical edition. Accessed 21 August 2026.

13. Henrik Ibsens skrifter, University of Oslo. “”Jacob Hendrichssen Birkedalen: biographical record” (https://ibsen.uio.no/REGINFO_peHJHB.html)”. Accessed 21 August 2026.

14. Ibsen Society of America. “”Ibsen’s Life and Works” (https://ibsensociety.org/ibsen-life-and-works/)”. Accessed 21 August 2026.

15. University Museum of Bergen. “”Ibsen in Bergen, 1851–57″ (https://www.uib.no/en/universitymuseum/65349/ibsen-bergen-1851-57)”. Accessed 21 August 2026.

16. Store norske leksikon. “”Henrik Ibsen” (https://snl.no/Henrik_Ibsen)” and “”Sigurd Ibsen” (https://snl.no/Sigurd_Ibsen)”. Accessed 21 August 2026.

17. Norges Bank. “”Units of Account in Norway from 1514″ (https://www.norges-bank.no/en/topics/statistics/Price-calculator-/Units-of-account-in-Norway-from-1514/)” and “”Price Calculator” (https://www.norges-bank.no/en/topics/statistics/Price-calculator-/)”. Accessed 21 August 2026.

18. E24. “”Gratulerer med 150-årsdagen, krona” (https://e24.no/norsk-oekonomi/i/8qrA2w/gratulerer-med-150-aarsdagen-krona)”, 16 October 2025. Used for the consumer-price-index conversion factor quoted from Statistics Norway’s price calculator. Accessed 21 August 2026.

19. Arts and Culture Norway. “”Statens kunstnerstipend” (https://www.kulturdirektoratet.no/tilskuddsordninger/statens-kunstnerstipend)”. Grant amount for 2026: NOK 342,193 per year. Accessed 21 August 2026.

20. Henrik Ibsens skrifter, University of Oslo. “”Brevinnledninger: Roma og Dresden” (https://ibsen.uio.no/BRINNL_brevInnledning_3_3.html)”. For the addresses in Rome and Dresden. Accessed 21 August 2026.

21. Monacensia Literary Archive and Library / Literaturportal Bayern. “”Henrik Ibsen in München: Polizeilicher Meldebogen” (https://www.literaturportal-bayern.de/themen?id=482&task=lpbtheme.default)”. For the Munich apartments. Accessed 21 August 2026.

22. Directorate for Cultural Heritage. “”Victoria terrasse blir fredet” (https://riksantikvaren.no/fredninger/victoria-terrasse-blir-fredet/)”, 21 March 2025; VisitOSLO. “”A Walk with Henrik Ibsen” (https://www.visitoslo.com/articles/a-walk-with-henrik-ibsen)”. For the Christiania residences. Accessed 21 August 2026.

23. Ibsen Museum & Theatre. “”The Home of Henrik Ibsen” (https://ibsenmt.no/en/the-home-of-henrik-ibsen)”. For the apartment at Arbins gate 1. Accessed 21 August 2026.

24. Henrik Ibsens skrifter, University of Oslo. “”Speech at the Norwegian Women’s Rights Association celebration, 26 May 1898″ (https://www.ibsen.uio.no/SAK_P18980526Kvinde_Morgenbl.xhtml)”. Full text of the speech. Accessed 21 August 2026.

25. Larsen, Peter. “”Celebrity” (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/ibsen-in-context/celebrity/B072E6148D48C417CCD9E9A241112006)”. Cambridge University Press, 2021. On the circulation of Ibsen’s portraits in commercial culture.

26. AKPOOL. “”Henrik Ibsen, Portrait, Reklame, Esser’s Seifenpulver” (https://www.akpool.ch/Ak-Dichter-Henrik-Ibsen/2665137)”. Catalogue record for the historical advertising card. Accessed 21 August 2026.

On the Forced-Labour Claim

Tidsånd. “”Henrik Ibsen er pengelens og klarer ikke å betale barnebidraget” (https://tidsaand.no/tidslinjen/1851/juni/1/henrik-ibsen-er-pengelens-og-klarer-ikke-betale-barnebidraget-til-sonnen-han)”. The entry cites an older version of the biographical article in the Norwegian Biographical Dictionary, but the platform itself marks it as not proofread. The article therefore describes the episode as a summons to forced labour rather than a punishment known to have been served. Accessed 21 August 2026.