Editing Henrik Ibsen (section)

==Early life and background==
[[File:Skien 1822, painted by Jens Severin Schweder.jpg|thumb|Skien in 1822]]

Henrik Johan Ibsen was born on 20 March 1828 in ''[[Stockmanngården]]'' into an affluent merchant family in the prosperous port town of [[Skien]] in [[Telemark|Bratsberg]] (Telemark). He was the son of the merchant [[Knud Ibsen|Knud Plesner Ibsen]] (1797–1877) and [[Marichen Altenburg|Marichen Cornelia Martine Altenburg]] (1799–1869), and he grew up socially as a member of the [[Paus family]], which consisted of the siblings [[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole]] and [[Hedevig Paus]] and their tightly knit families. Ibsen's ancestors were primarily merchants and shipowners in cities such as Skien and Bergen, or members of the "[[aristocracy of officials]]" of [[Upper Telemark]], the region's civil servant elite. [[Jørgen Haave]] writes that Ibsen "had strong family ties to the families who had held power and wealth in Telemark since the mid-1500s."<ref name=Haave/> Henrik Ibsen himself wrote that "my parents were members on both sides of the most respected families in Skien", and that he was closely related to "just about all the [[Norwegian patriciate|patrician]] families who then dominated the place and its surroundings."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibsen.uio.no/BREV_1880-1889ht%7cB18820921GB.xhtml|title=Henrik Ibsens skrifter: Brev til GEORG BRANDES (21. september 1882)|website=www.ibsen.uio.no}}</ref><ref>Haugen (1979: 23)</ref> He was [[Lutheran sacraments|baptised]] at home in the [[Church of Norway|Lutheran state church]]—membership of which was mandatory—on 28 March and the baptism was confirmed in {{ill|Christian's Church (Skien)|lt=Christian's Church|no|Christianskirken (Skien)}} on 19 June.<ref name="Haave" /> When Ibsen was born, Skien had for centuries been one of Norway's most important and internationally oriented cities, and a centre of seafaring, timber exports and early industrialization that had made Norway the developed and prosperous part of [[Denmark–Norway]].<ref name=Haave /><ref name="Nygaard-foredrag">[[Jon Nygaard]] (2016): "[https://www.nrk.no/video/alt-du-vet-om-ibsen-er-feil_261040 Alt du vet om Ibsen er feil]", [[NRK]]</ref>

===The Paus family of Rising and Altenburg House===
[[File:Colorized version of an older black-and-white image of a painting on ivory of Ole Paus, circa 1790s.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole Paus]] (1766–1855), Ibsen's social grandfather; an ancestor of [[Ole Paus|the singer]]]]

Ibsen's parents, [[Knud Ibsen|Knud]] and [[Marichen Altenburg|Marichen]], grew up as close relatives, sometimes referred to as "near-siblings," and both belonged to the tightly intertwined [[Paus family]] of [[Rising, Norway|Rising]] and [[Altenburg House]] – that is, the extended family of the sibling pair [[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole Paus]] (1766–1855) and [[Hedevig Paus]] (1763–1848).<ref name=Haave/>
[[File:Altenburg2.png|thumb|A [[silhouette]] (ca. 1820) of the Altenburg/Paus family in [[Altenburggården]], with Ibsen's mother (far right), maternal grandparents (centre) and other relatives. It is the only existing portrait of either of Ibsen's parents.]]
[[File:Rising i Gjerpen.jpg|thumb|[[Rising, Norway]], [[Knud Ibsen]]'s childhood home. The farm was bought by his stepfather [[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole Paus]] in 1799, on the same day he sold the Ibsen house in Løvestrædet, which he had inherited from his wife [[Johanne Plesner|Johanne's]] first husband [[Henrich Ibsen]]. Rising was the home of Henrik Ibsen's grandparents during his childhood and, along with Venstøp, stands as one of the two most significant preserved landmarks of his childhood environment.]]

After Knud's father [[Henrich Johan Ibsen]] (1765–1797) died at sea when Knud was newborn in 1797, his mother Johanne Plesner (1770–1847) married captain [[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole Paus]] (1766–1855) the following year. Like Henrich Johan Ibsen before him, Paus thus became the brother-in-law of Skien's wealthiest man, [[Diderik von Cappelen]]. In 1799, Ole Paus sold the Ibsen House in Skien's Løvestrædet (Lion's Street), which he had inherited from his wife's first husband, and bought the estate [[Rising, Norway|Rising]] outside Skien from a sister of his brother-in-law von Cappelen. Knud grew up at Rising with most of his many half-siblings, among them the later governor [[Christian Cornelius Paus]] and the shipowner [[Christopher Blom Paus]]. In the 1801 census the Paus family of Rising had seven servants.<ref name="Haave" />

Marichen grew up in the stately [[Altenburg House]] in the center of Skien with her parents Hedevig Paus and [[Johan Andreas Altenburg]]. Altenburg was a shipowner, timber merchant, and owned a large liquor distillery at Lundetangen and a farm outside of town, and after his death, Hedevig took over the business in 1824.<ref name="Haave" />

The siblings Ole and Hedevig Paus were born in [[Lårdal]] in [[Upper Telemark]], where the [[Paus family]] belonged to the region's elite, the  "[[aristocracy of officials]]," and had moved to Skien at a young age with their oldest sister, joining Skien's merchant elite with the support of their relatives in the family [[Blom (family from Skien)|Blom]]. The children from Ole's and Hedevig's homes maintained close contact throughout Knud's and Marichen's childhood; notably, Ole's oldest son, Knud's half-brother [[Henrik Johan Paus]], was raised in Hedevig's home. The Paus family reflects a meritocratic elite defined by education, priesthood, and public office.<ref name=Nygaard2013/>

===Knud Ibsen's marriage to Marichen Altenburg===

[[File:Altenburggården i Skien.jpg|thumb|The roof and one of the windows of Altenburggården can be seen in the middle of the picture. Altenburggården was Marichen Altenburg's childhood home, and Henrik Ibsen lived there aged 3–8.]]
[[File:Venstoep Skien.jpg|thumb|Venstøp outside Skien, originally the Ibsen family's summer house, where they lived permanently 1836–1843. It was a reasonably large farm with large, representative buildings.]]
In 1825, Henrik's father Knud acquired the burghership of Skien and established an independent business as a timber and luxury goods merchant there, with his younger brother, Christopher Blom Paus, then aged 15, as his apprentice. The two brothers moved into the Stockmanngården building, where they rented a part of the building and lived with a maid. On the first floor the brothers sold foreign wines and a variety of luxury items, while also engaging in wholesale export of timber in cooperation with their first cousin Diderik von Cappelen (1795–1866). On 1 December 1825, Knud married his stepfather's niece Marichen, who then moved in with them. Henrik was born there in 1828. In 1830, Marichen's mother Hedevig left Altenburggården and her properties and business ventures to her son-in-law Knud, and the Ibsen family moved to Marichen's childhood home in 1831. During the 1820s and 1830s, Knud was a wealthy young merchant in Skien, and he was the city's 16th largest taxpayer in 1833.<ref name="Haave" />

Older Ibsen scholars have claimed that Henrik Ibsen was fascinated by his parents' "strange, almost incestuous marriage", and he would treat the subject of incestuous relationships in several plays, notably in his masterpiece ''[[Rosmersholm]]''.<ref>Ferguson p. 280</ref> On the other hand, [[Jørgen Haave]] points out that his parents' close relationship was not that unusual among the Skien elite.<ref name="Haave">{{cite book |last=Haave |first=Jørgen |author-link=Jørgen Haave |year=2017 |title=[[The Ibsen Family|Familien Ibsen]] |publisher= Museumsforlaget|isbn=9788283050455}}</ref>

===Childhood===

In his unfinished biography ''From Skien to Rome,'' Henrik Ibsen wrote about the Skien of his childhood:
{{Blockquote|In my childhood, Skien was an extremely joyful and festive town, quite the opposite of what it would later become. Many highly cultured, prosperous families at that time lived partly in the city itself, partly on large farms in the area. Close or more remote kinship connected most of these families amongst themselves, and balls, dinner parties, and musical soirées came one after another in rapid succession both during winters and summers. [...] Visits from strangers were almost a constant occurrence at our spacious farmhouse and especially around Christmastime and the market days, our townhouse was full and the table was set from morning to nightfall.|Henrik Ibsen<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ibsen |first1=Henrik |title=Barndomsminder |url=https://www.ibsen.uio.no/SAK_P18810117Barnd.xhtml |work=Henrik Ibsens skrifter|publisher=University of Oslo|date=1888}}</ref>}}

Haave writes that the sources who knew Henrik in childhood described him as "a boy who was pampered by his father, who enjoyed being creative in solitude, and who provoked peers with his superiority and arrogance."<ref name="Haave" /> Henrik engaged in model theater, which was particularly popular among boys from bourgeois homes in Europe in the early 1800s.<ref name="Haave" /> In contrast to his father, who was described as sociable and playful with a cheerful and friendly demeanor, Henrik was depicted as a more introverted personality. This trait was said to be shared with several relatives in the Paus family, and later with his own son, [[Sigurd Ibsen|Sigurd]]. Johan Kielland Bergwitz claimed that "it is with the [[Paus family]] that Henrik Ibsen has the most pronounced temperament traits in common."<ref name=Bergwitz/><!-- p. 44 --> Referring to the Paus side of the family, Hedvig Ibsen remarked, "we belong to a silent family," playfully echoing the similarity between "taus" (silent) and "Paus."<ref>Mosfjeld 1949, p. 17.</ref> One of the Cudrio sisters from the neighboring farm, who knew Henrik Ibsen in childhood, said, "he was immensely cunning and malicious, and he even beat us. But when he grew up, he became incredibly handsome, yet no one liked him because he was so malicious. No one wanted to be with him."<ref name="Haave" />

When Henrik Ibsen was around seven years old, his father's fortunes took a turn for the worse, and in 1835 the family was forced to sell Altenburggården. The following year they moved to their stately summer home and farm, ''{{ill|Venstøp|no}}'', outside of the city.<ref>Michael Meyers. ''Henrik Ibsen'', Chapter one.</ref> They were still relatively affluent, had four servants,<ref>[[Jørgen Haave]] (2013): "[https://dev.telemarkmuseum.no/wp-content/uploads/Haave-Jorgen.-Bidrag-til-antologien-Norsk-havekunst-2013.-Utsikten-fra-Ibsens-gutterom-1.pdf Utsikten fra Ibsens gutterom]," in Einar Sørensen (ed.), ''Norsk havekunst under europeisk himmel'', Scandinavian Academic Press/Spartacus forlag</ref> and socialised with other members of the Skien elite, e.g. through lavish parties; their closest neighbours on Southern Venstøp were former shipowner and mayor of Skien Ulrich Frederik Cudrio and his family, who also had been forced to sell their townhouse.<ref name="Haave" /> In 1843, after Henrik left home, the Ibsen family moved to a townhouse at Snipetorp, owned by Knud Ibsen's half-brother and former apprentice Christopher Blom Paus, who had established himself as an independent merchant in Skien in 1836 and who eventually became one of the city's leading shipowners.<ref name="Templeton">Templeton, Joan (1997). ''Ibsen's Women''. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1ff.</ref> Knud continued to struggle to maintain his business and had some success in the 1840s, but in the 1850s his business ventures and professional activities came to an end, and he became reliant on  support from his successful younger half-brothers.<ref name="Haave" />

===Myths and reassessment===
Historically, Ibsen's background was romanticized or dramatized to align with the mythos of the self-made [[genius]]. Early biographical accounts, like Henrik Jæger’s seminal biography, often emphasized a narrative of adversity: a descent from privilege into hardship, culminating in Ibsen’s artistic triumph. This interpretation positioned Ibsen’s works as expressions of personal struggle against societal and familial constraints, resonating with his broader critique of bourgeois morality. The depiction of Ibsen’s father as a failed merchant and tyrannical figure who fell into alcoholism, combined with the narrative of the family's social decline, provided a lens through which many early scholars interpreted themes in Ibsen’s plays, such as financial ruin, family dysfunction, and hidden moral conflicts.<ref name="Haave" />

Modern scholarship frames Henrik Ibsen not as a self-made artist rising from hardship, but as a product of Norway's patrician elite whose critique of society reflected his privileged yet transitional upbringing. Ibsen scholar Ellen Rees notes that historical and biographical research into Ibsen's life in the 21st century has been marked by a "revolution" that has debunked numerous myths previously taken for granted.<ref name=Rees>{{cite journal |last1=Rees |first1=Ellen |title=Tropes Revisited: Evert Sprinchorn's ''Ibsen's Kingdom: The Man and His Works'' and Recent Historical Research in Ibsen Studies |journal=Scandinavian Studies |date=2022 |volume=94 |issue=4 |pages=530–545 |doi=10.5406/21638195.94.4.06 |doi-broken-date=14 January 2025 |s2cid=253371741 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/869129}}</ref> Older Ibsen historiography has often claimed that Knud Ibsen experienced financial ruin and became an alcoholic tyrant, that the family lost contact with the elite it had belonged to, and that this had a strong influence on Henrik Ibsen's biography and work. Newer Ibsen scholarship—in particular [[Jon Nygaard]]'s book on Ibsen's wider social milieu and ancestry<ref name=Nygaard2013>[[Jon Nygaard|Nygaard, Jon]] (2013). ''"...af stort est du kommen" – Henrik Ibsen og Skien''. [[Centre for Ibsen Studies]]. ISBN 9788291540122.</ref> and [[Jørgen Haave]]'s book ''[[The Ibsen Family]]'' (''Familien Ibsen'')—has refuted such claims, and Haave has pointed out that older biographical works have uncritically repeated numerous unfounded myths about both of Ibsen's parents, and about the playwright's childhood and background in general.<ref name="Haave" />

Haave points out that Knud Ibsen's economic problems in the 1830s were mainly the result of the difficult times and something the Ibsen family had in common with most members of the bourgeoisie; Haave further argues that Henrik Ibsen had a happy and comfortable childhood as a member of the upper class, even after the family moved to Venstøp, and that they were able to maintain their lifestyle and patrician identity with the help of their extended family and accumulated cultural capital.<ref name="Haave" /> Contrary to the incorrect claims that Ibsen had been born in a small or remote town, Haave points out that Skien had been Eastern Norway's leading commercial city for centuries, and a centre of seafaring, timber exports, and early industrialization that had made Norway the developed and prosperous part of [[Denmark–Norway]].<ref name="Haave" />

Rees characterizes Ibsen's family as upper class rather than middle class, and part of "the closest thing Norway had to an aristocracy, albeit one that lost most of its power during his lifetime."<ref name=Rees/> Ibsen scholar [[Jon Nygaard]] stated that Ibsen has an "exceptional upper-class background" and is a result of Norway being a wealthy country for a very long time.<ref name="Nygaard-foredrag"/> Haave points out that virtually all of Ibsen's ancestors had been wealthy burghers and higher government officials, and members of the local and regional elites in the areas they lived, often of continental European ancestry. He argues that "the Ibsen family belonged to an elite that distanced itself strongly from the common farmer population, and considered itself part of an educated European culture" and that "it was this patrician class that formed his cultural identity and upbringing."<ref>{{cite news |title=Ibsens barneår var bedre enn antatt |work=Varden |date=12 May 2016}}</ref> Haave points to many examples of both Henrik Ibsen and other members of his family having a condescending attitude towards common Norwegian farmers, viewing them as "some sort of primitive indigenous population,"<ref name="Haave" /> and being very conscious of their own identity as members of the sophisticated upper class.<ref name="Haave" /> Haave points out that Ibsen's most immediate family—Knud, Marichen and Henrik's siblings—disintegrated financially and socially in the 1850s, but that it happened after Henrik had left home, at a time when he was establishing himself as a successful man of theatre, while his extended family, such as his uncles [[Henrik Johan Paus]], [[Christian Cornelius Paus]] and [[Christopher Blom Paus]], were firmly established in Skien's elite as lawyers, government officials and wealthy shipowners.<ref name="Haave" /> Haave argues that the story of the Ibsen family is the story of the slow collapse of a patrician merchant family amid the emergence of a new democratic society in the 19th century, and that Henrik Ibsen, like others of his class, had to find new opportunities to maintain his social position.<ref name="Haave" /> Nygaard summarized the revolution in the understanding of Ibsen's childhood and background as all the popular notions about Ibsen being wrong.<ref name="Nygaard-foredrag"/>

===Literary influence of his childhood===
Many Ibsen scholars have compared characters and themes in his plays to his family and upbringing; his themes often deal with issues of financial difficulty as well as moral conflicts stemming from dark secrets hidden from society. Ibsen himself confirmed that he both modeled and named characters in his plays after his own family.<ref name="Michael Meyers">Michael Meyers. ''Henrick Ibsen''. Chapter one.</ref><ref>Hans Bernhard Jaeger, ''Henrik Ibsen, 1828–1888: et literært livsbillede'', Copenhagen, [[Gyldendal]], 1888</ref> Works such as ''[[Peer Gynt]]'', ''[[The Wild Duck]]'', ''[[Rosmersholm]]'', ''[[Hedda Gabler]]'', ''[[An Enemy of the People]],'' and ''[[Ghosts (play)|Ghosts]]'' include numerous references to Ibsen's relatives, family history, and childhood memories. However, despite Ibsen's use of his family as an inspiration for his plays, Haave criticizes the uncritical use of Ibsen's dramas as biographical sources and the "naive" readings of them as literal representations of his family members, in particular his father.<ref name="Haave" />

===Overview of key figures===
Ibsen grew up in the tightly-knit extended family of the siblings [[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole Paus]] and [[Hedevig Christine Paus|Hedevig Paus]], his social paternal grandfather and biological maternal grandmother. His parents were socially considered first cousins. A blue background indicates that the person lived in [[Altenburg House]]. The silhouettes are from the family portrait in Altenburg House, circa 1820.

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{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | |C1| 
  |C1=[[Cornelius Paus (civil servant)|Cornelius Paus]]<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1726–1799</span><br/><span style="white-space: nowrap;">from [[Upper Telemark]]</span><br/><span style="white-space: nowrap;">died at [[Altenburg House]]</span>
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{{Tree chart|Ah4|-|Ah5|-|Ol1|~|h|~|Ah6|-|v|-|Ah7 
  |Ah4=[[Henrich Ibsen|Henrich<br/>Johan Ibsen]]<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1765–1797</span><br/>died at sea|Ah5=[[Johanne Plesner|Johanne<br/>Plesner]]<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1770–1847</span><br/>married Ibsen<br/>and Paus
  |Ah6=[[File:Altenburg2 (cropped).png|65px|link=Hedevig Christine Paus]]<br/>[[Hedevig Christine Paus|Hedevig Paus]]<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1763–1848</span>|Ah7=[[File:Silhouette of Johan Andreas Altenburg (cropped).png|65px|link=Johan Andreas Altenburg]]<br/>[[Johan Andreas Altenburg|Johan Andreas<br/>Altenburg]]<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1763–1824</span>|Ol1=[[File:Ole Paus3.jpg|65px|link=Ole Paus (shipowner)]]<br/>[[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole Paus]]<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1766–1855</span><br/>buys&nbsp;[[Rising, Norway|Rising]]|boxstyle_Ah6=background-color: #d6eaf8;|boxstyle_Ah7=background-color: #d6eaf8;
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{{Tree chart| |HP|~|h|~|Ah2|-|-|v|-|Ah3|~|h|~|CA
  |Ah2=[[Knud Ibsen]]<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1797–1877</span><br/>Ole Paus'<br/>stepson<br/>raised at<br/>[[Rising, Norway|Rising]]|Ah3=[[File:Marichen Altenburg 2 (cropped).png|65px|link=Marichen Altenburg]]<br/>[[Marichen Altenburg|Marichen<br/>Cornelia<br/>Altenburg]]<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1799–1869</span>|HP=[[File:Silhouette of Henrik Johan Paus (cropped).png|65px|link=Henrik Johan Paus]]<br/>[[Henrik Johan Paus|Henrik<br/>Johan<br/>Paus]]<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1799–1893</span>|CA=[[File:Christine Altenburg (cropped).png|65px]]<br/>Christine<br/>Altenburg<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1798–</span>|boxstyle_Ah2=background-color: #d6eaf8;|boxstyle_Ah3=background-color: #d6eaf8;|boxstyle_HP=background-color: #d6eaf8;|boxstyle_CA=background-color: #d6eaf8;
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{{Tree chart| | | | | | | |Ol2|~|Ah1|~|Hd|Ah1=[[File:Portrait of Henrik Ibsen, 1863-64 (cropped).jpg|65px|plain]]<br/>'''Henrik Johan Ibsen'''<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1828–1906</span>|Ol2=Ole Paus<br/>Ibsen<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1835–1917</span>|Hd=[[File:Hedvig Ibsen.jpeg|65px|link=Hedvig Ibsen]]<br/>[[Hedvig Ibsen]]<br/><span style="font-size: smaller; white-space: nowrap;">1831–1920</span>|boxstyle_Ah1=background-color: #d6eaf8;|boxstyle_Hd=background-color: #d6eaf8;}}
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