Superstars receive a lot of attention while they're alive and after they die. Fans and researchers scrutinise everything they said, did, and owned.
Norway's greatest star, playwright Henrik Ibsen, is no exception.
A Doll's House and his other plays are performed all over the world. Ibsen is the second most performed playwright – only beaten by Shakespeare.
Jørgen Haave is a researcher at the Henrik Ibsen Museum, which is part of the Telemark Museum.
When Science Norway asked him to choose a favourite from the museum, he picked a yellow plush sofa. It sheds light on an unknown side of the great poet.
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Museum favourites
In this series, we ask museum staff to choose one item from their museum. What is their favourite?
The sofa came to the museum from Finse Hotel. But how did it end up there, and how certain is the museum that it actually belonged to Ibsen?
Furnished rental
In 1851, Ibsen was hired as a playwright and stage director at the Norwegian Theatre in Bergen. That saved him from a meagre existence in Kristiania, now Oslo, where he had failed to pass the university entrance exam and struggled to make a living from writing.
He didn't pay his bills, neither to the tailor nor the shoemaker.
He had arrived in Kristiania from Grimstad, where he worked in the local pharmacy. In the capital, he had no income at all.
That changed in Bergen, where he earned a good salary.
After two years living in a hotel, Ibsen moved into a two-room apartment owned by the theatre. And this is when the yellow mahogany sofa with six matching chairs came into his life.
The apartment was rented furnished, so the theatre bought furniture, including the sofa.
Henrik Ibsen, around 67 years old and a famous playwright. He was born in 1828 and died in 1906.(Painted by Eilif Peterssen / Public domain)
Ibsen's bold move
Ibsen lived in the apartment for a few years before getting a job at the Christiania Norwegian Theatre in Oslo.
"As he was moving out, a member of the theatre's board happened to pass by. He was surprised to see Ibsen taking the sofa and chairs with him, since they belonged to the theatre," says Haave.
Ibsen later mentioned the incident in a letter to a friend, writing that the theatre board 'behaved rather ungracefully' when they claimed ownership of the furniture as he was leaving.
"But let's be honest, this was pretty bold of Ibsen. He basically stole the sofa," says Haave.
The sofa story paints a lesser-known portrait of Henrik Ibsen.
Jørgen Haave, who studies Ibsen, pictured on another sofa at the Telemark Museum.(Photo: Nina Kristiansen)
Bought, but never paid
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"He didn't pay his bills, neither to the tailor nor the shoemaker. When he left Bergen, there were lots of small debts owed to ordinary working people that followed him to Kristiania," says Haave.
It was lousy, because he likely earned ten times more than the tailor, according to Haave.
"From the moment he arrived in Bergen, he had a solid income. But still, he just didn’t bother to pay for anything," he says.
It’s unclear what Ibsen actually spent his money on, but his habit of avoiding payments started already in Grimstad.
"Back then, Ibsen once said of a friend that he wasn’t just foolish for lending him money – he was actually so foolish that he believed he’d get it back," says Haave.
Snob?
Ibsen was born into a wealthy family in Skien. They lived the good life, hosting parties and mingling with the city's upper class. When his father went bankrupt, the family had to move to a farm.
A few years earlier, Ibsen had been ordered to pay child support for a son he had with a colleague at the pharmacy.
"Things went downhill for them, but they didn't live poorly. The neighbourhood was made up of other well-off families in similar situations," says Haave.
He believes Ibsen grew up in an environment that lacked respect for ordinary people's work.
"Henrik Ibsen was raised to feel a distance from working-class people. Even when he had little money, he remained very conscious of his own class and background," he says.
Didn't pay child support
When Ibsen first arrived in Bergen, he earned 240 speciedalers a year. That was comparable to a teacher's salary or the top-paid actor at the theatre, according to Ivo de Figueiredo's book on Ibsen. After just a few months, his salary rose to 300 speciedalers a year.
A few years earlier, Ibsen had been ordered to pay child support for a son he had with a colleague at the pharmacy. He struggled to pay while a poor student in Kristiania, but even after getting a job in Bergen, he remained stingy and late with the payments. The child support was eight speciedalers a year.
Accounting books and letters show that he was constantly being reminded about the child support, even after his salary in Kristiania rose to 600 speciedalers a year.
Did not pay rent
"He didn't pay his rent in Kristiania either. That's why Ibsen and his wife Susanne had to keep moving from one apartment to another. The heavy sofa moved with them," says Haave.
The unpaid bills eventually led to Ibsen being summoned to the conciliation board. He did not show up, but was still ordered to pay. When he failed to do so, the case went to court, where he was found guilty again.
"Ibsen put himself in a vulnerable position. Despite having a high income, he didn't pay off the small debts," says Haave.
Left behind debts and belongings
After a few years in Kristiania, the theatre ran into financial trouble. This affected Ibsen. He became unemployed, and the debt became unmanageable.
His salvation came in the form of a travel grant and a fundraising campaign led by fellow writers. In 1864, he and his family left for Rome. It would be 27 years before Ibsen returned to Norway.
Henrik Ibsen, around 35 years old, just before leaving Norway. He was bitter and frustrated with Norwegian society, which he considered narrow-minded and petty.(Photo: Public domain)
He left behind a mountain of debt and all his possessions. A lawyer took care of the matter. Ibsen's furniture was sold at auction.
According to auction records, a needle maker named Eriksen bought the sofa.
From needle maker to mountain hotel
Haave traced the sofa's journey over the next 20 years. Eriksen lived at several addresses, and the sofa likely came along.
Eventually, the sofa ended up at Finse hotel.
"I don't know how it got there. Eriksen had no children, so it didn't pass down through family. It's a mystery," says Haave.
During the detective work to find out whether the sofa truly belonged to the famous playwright, Haave found an article in A-magasinet from 1928 (link in Norwegian).
The journalist scolded Finse Hotel for hiding the sofa away in the billiard loft, where older gentlemen who don't want to dance would hide.
'In this Ibsen jubilee year, the furniture should have been put to much better use. 'Travel to Finse! Ski and sit in Henrik Ibsen's sofa!'' wrote the journalist.
By then, only foreign tourists were bothering to take photos of themselves in the famous playwright's forgotten sofa.
When Henrik Ibsen returned to Norway, he moved into an apartment on Arbins gate in Oslo. By then, he was famous and earning well. This was Ibsen's study, which is now a museum.(Photo: Berit Roald / NTB)
Still fascinated by Ibsen
When Finse Hotel underwent renovations, they donated Ibsen's sofa to the museum. But it was unclear when and where he had owned it. Now Haave has discovered that it did, in fact, belong to the old poet – even though the original ownership was questionable.
'Objects speak about life. This becomes especially clear after someone's death ... By getting close to an object, you also get closer to the person who once lived with it,' writes cultural historian Anne-Sofie Hjemdahl in the book Ting om Ibsen (Things about Ibsen).
That’s why every item, bill, and letter connected to Ibsen is of great interest to the museums. Haave has worked there for 17 years and still hasn’t grown tired of Ibsen.
He is actually a literature scholar, and by definition should be more focused on Ibsen's texts, but he finds researching Ibsen's life and possessions just as fascinating.
"I was sceptical at first, but now I just keep getting more and more obsessed with the biographical side of it," says Haave.
