[Smoking and art. History of smoking in Norway in paintings]

The habit of smoking was well-known in Norway in the first half of the sixteenth century. Tobacco-smoking is seen in Norwegian paintings. In the nineteenth century, long and artistic pipes were used by men relaxing after a pleasant dinner. In self portraits of Christian Krohg and Edvard Munch we see them smoking pipes and cigarettes surrounded by smoke. In an exhibition of portraits of Norwegian Authors, ten out of seventy authors were portrayed with a pipe, a cigar or a cigarette. There are various interpretations of the use of smoking in art. A simple explanation is that this was an accepted part of life at that time. The authors may have believed that they concentrated better when they smoked and elegance may have been of importance for many of them. The symbolic significance of cigarette-smoking has been of great value in the marketing of tobacco-products.