Hans Johan Fr. Berg

Hans Johan Frederik Berg was a Norwegian painter known primarily as a copyist, although he also worked as a portrait painter and with watercolours.

Berg was born at the trading post Kopardal on Løkta in what is now Dønna municipality.

He began his artistic training in 1835, initially at the Royal School of Drawing and Art in Christiania, later continuing his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Returning to Christiania in 1838, he established himself as a portrait painter, depicting notable figures such as Amalie Sofie Bekkevold, wife of Henrik Wergeland, the violinist Ole Bull, and landowner Isak Coldevin and his spouse. However, the rise of photography diminished the demand for traditional portrait painting, prompting Berg to seek artistic development abroad.

During the 1850s, Berg focused on copying works of renowned masters, traveling to prominent art museums to replicate paintings by artists like Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens. His copies were exhibited in Stockholm in 1857 and in Christiania in 1861. In 1863, he traveled to London to further his skills in watercolor painting. In the 1870s, he turned his attention to painting a series depicting the Sami environment.