Frida Hansen (1855-1931) was a Norwegian textile artist and the outstanding Norwegian exponent of Art Nouveau weaving. Born Frederikke Bolette Petersen in Stavanger, she studied painting under Kitty Kielland and Johan Bennetter, and turned to textiles only after her family lost its fortune in the 1880s, learning to weave with Kjerstina Hauglum in Lærdal in 1889.
In 1897 she patented the transparency technique with which she is now identified, alternating dense and open passages within a single tapestry so that the ground shows through the design. Her work was shaped by the ideas of William Morris, and she is regarded as a bridge between Norwegian and wider European tapestry. She received the King's Medal of Merit in gold in 1915, and worked from 1926 until her death on the St. Olav tapestry for Stavanger Cathedral.
Photograph by Gustav Borgen, about 1896. Norsk Folkemuseum (NFB.35230), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
