Maison Oslo / Walks / The Scandinavian painters

Art history · 3 hours · English or French

From fjord to Scream: the Scandinavian painters, in order

In 1814 Norway had a constitution but hardly any painters. A century later it had given the world The Scream. This walk tells that story in order: the romantic landscapes that helped invent a nation, the realists who painted Kristiania's streets and parlours, the women who fought for a place at the easel, and the young Munch who broke with all of them. We start in the café of the Kristiania bohemians and spend two full hours in the National Museum.

Harriet Backer, Blue Interior, 1883
Photo: Harriet Backer · Public domain

Why you'll love it

  • Art history told in order: romanticism, realism, the women painters, then Munch's break
  • Two full hours in the National Museum, with a route chosen for this story
  • The Scream (1893) at the end, with the pencil line Munch wrote on it himself
  • Harriet Backer, Kitty Kielland and the painters the textbooks skipped
  • Coffee where Ibsen and the Kristiania bohemians held court
  • Headsets inside the museum, so you hear every word without crowding

The route, minute by minute

Grand Café → Karl Johan → Nasjonalmuseet (two hours) → the Light Hall · about 1.5 km, flat, mostly indoors

When: Sat–Sun 09:30 · Thu evening 17:00. Times below are for the first start of the day; later starts follow the same route. On Thursdays the National Museum stays open until 20:00, so the walk also runs in the evening, from 17:00.

  1. Grand Café, Karl Johans gate 31

    Meeting point

    Coffee in the café Ibsen visited every day and where the Kristiania bohemians argued about art and freedom. The legend of Munch offering The Sick Child for a hundred steaks.

    Included: Coffee

  2. Karl Johan: Munch's first studio and Blomqvist

    along the street

    Where the young Munch rented his first studio facing Parliament, and where the Frieze of Life was shown in 1904. A glance at the old National Gallery, home of The Scream until 2019.

  3. Chapter one: painting a nation

    900 m · 12 min

    J.C. Dahl and Hans Gude paint mountains and fjords into a national identity; Tidemand and Gude's Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord, the picture every Norwegian knows.

    Included: Museum ticket and headsets

  4. Chapter two: real rooms, real people

    in the museum

    The 1880s: Christian Krohg's social realism, Frits Thaulow's snow, and the women painters, Harriet Backer's Blue Interior and Kitty Kielland's summer nights, who trained in Munich and Paris because Norway had no academy that would take them.

  5. Chapter three: Munch breaks the rules

    in the museum

    The Munch room: The Sick Child, Madonna, and The Scream (1893). Why it looked like a scandal, and why it became the most reproduced image of modern anxiety.

  6. The Light Hall

    Arrival

    We end under the museum's glowing alabaster-glass hall, with time for questions and a reading list. Add the Ekeberg extension to see where The Scream's sky was seen.

F

Your guide · Urban planner and founder of Maison Oslo · English · Français
Every walk is prepared with the makers, curators and sources behind each stop. Ask anything, in English or French.

Add-on

The pre-walk booklet

Route, timeline, glossary and reading list for this walk, to print at home or delivered printed to your hotel.

Preview the booklet

Good to know

Do I need to know about art?

No. The walk tells one story in order, so everything makes sense even if you have never been to a museum in Oslo.

Will we see the painted Scream?

Yes: the 1893 painting hangs permanently in the Munch room at the National Museum.

When does it run?

Saturdays and Sundays at 09:30, and Thursday evenings at 17:00, when the National Museum stays open until 20:00.

And the MUNCH museum?

See our walk 'Munch, in depth': two hours inside MUNCH on summer evenings, when the museum lets independent guides lead groups.

Read before you go

The MUNCH museum tower next to the Opera
Art history24 Sep 20263 min read

Is the Munch Museum worth it? An honest guide for 2026

MUNCH drew 775,000 visitors in 2025, but the building divides people and the museum faces cuts in 2026. Who should go, how long to spend, and what to see.
Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893, National Museum, Oslo
Art history24 Sep 20263 min read

Where to see The Scream in Oslo (and why there is more than one)

The 1893 painted Scream hangs at the National Museum. MUNCH rotates its own versions. And the view that inspired it is a tram ride away. How to see all three, and when.