Adelsteen Normann was born on May 1st at Bodo, Norway and died in Oslo.

He started his working life in business, but gave this up before he was twenty and went to Dusseldorf to study painting. Normann loved his native Norway, but knew he would receive a better artistic training in Germany. He worked in Dusseldorf from 1869 to 1873 with the well known charismatic Russian porfessor Eugen Ducker, who encouraged him in his imaginative treatment of landscape.

Normann was almost exclusively a landcape painter. Under the influence of Ducker it was in Dusseldorf that Normann produced his most inspired Norwegian scenes. It was the fjords that fascinated Normann most, and he was preoccupied with trying to recreate the atmosphere of these. He loved Norwegian rural life and the harmony this seemed to have with the surrounding landscape. Paintings of fishermen, peasants and small villages set against the snow are typical of this. He was also very interested in the effect of the sun and moon on the snow, the feel of the snow at night and its different appearance and feeling during the various seasons.

Normann's work was very much appreciated during his lifetime. He exhibited in Berlin, Vienna, London, Dusseldorf and Munich. He also exhibited at the Salon de Paris from 1882, where he received a 'Mention Honorable' in 1884 and the bronze medal in 1889.

There are examples of Normann's work in Museums all over the world: at Aix-La-Chapelle, Breslau, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Leeds, Liverpool, Mayence, Mulhouse, Stockholm and Sydney.