There were 131 paintings by Hans Heyerdahl (1857-1913) in this exhibition. The exhibition ranges from Heyerdahl's Munich period in the 1870s to his last painting which was a portrait of one of his daughters - Portrait of a Light-curled Girl (1913). The paintings were mostly borrowed from private individuals. They had not wanted to borrow paintings from the National Gallery, as people could otherwise see them there.

Heyerdahl was educated at Tegneskolen 1873-74, at the Academy in Munich 1874-77, and with Léon Bonnat, Paris ca. 1878-80. During his time in Paris, in addition to the large realistic composition The Dying Child, which was bought by the French state, he painted a number of richly painted figure studies, nudes and portraits, Laura Gundersen (1879), At the Window (1881), The Champagne Girl (1880). In 1885 he returned home. In Åsgårdstrand he painted bright summer pictures such as The Sisters and Bathing Boys (both 1887), and at his studio in Oslo major works such as The Death of a Worker (1888) and the dazzlingly skillfully painted Svart-Anna (1887). Later on, Heyerdahl was also able to achieve great heights, especially as a portrayer of women, but his impressionable talent was often sidetracked by the neo-Romantic and Symbolist movements of the 1890s.