2006 Norway 20-Krone BU Coin "Henrik Ibsen"

• Mint: Mint of Norway
• Denomination: 20 Kroner
• Quality: Brilliant Uncirculated
• Issue limit: 8,342 pcs.
• Alloy: Base Metal
• Diameter: 27.5 mm
• Weight: 9.9 grams
• Box/Capsule: No/Blister
• Certificate: Printed Folder
• Language: Norwegian

Henrik Johan Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828 in Skien, Telemark into a relatively well-to-do family. Shortly after his birth, however, his family's fortunes took a significant turn for the worse. His mother turned to religion for solace, while his father went into a deep depression. The characters in his plays often mirror his parents, and his themes often deal with issues of financial difficulty as well as moral conflicts.

His first play, the tragedy Catilina (1850), was published under the pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme when he was only 22, but was never performed, and his first play to see production was The Burial Mound (1850), but it did not receive much attention. He spent the next several years employed at the Norwegian Theater in Bergen, involved in the production of more than 145 plays as a writer, director, and producer. During this period he did not publish any new plays of his own. Despite Ibsen's failure to achieve success as a playwright, he gained practical theatre experience that proved invaluable when he continued writing. In 1858, Ibsen became the creative director of Oslo's National Theater and married Suzannah Thoresen who gave birth to their only child, Sigurd. The couple lived in very poor financial circumstances and Ibsen became very disenchanted with life in Norway. In 1864 he left Oslo and went to Italy in self-imposed exile. He was not to return to his native land for the next 27 years, and when he returned it was to be as a successful but controversial playwright.

His years in exile in Italy brought him critical acclaim, fame and financial success with works such as Brand (1865) and Peer Gynt (1867), to which Edvard Grieg famously composed the incidental music. In 1868 the family moved to Dresden, Germany, where he wrote his own favorite piece Emperor and Galilean (1873), even though very few shared this opinion. Ibsen moved to Munich in 1875 and published A Doll's House (1879) - a scathing criticism of the traditional roles of men and women in Victorian marriage - followed by Ghosts (1881), An Enemy of the People (1882), The Wild Duck (1884) - considered by many to be Ibsen's finest work - and Hedda Gabler (1890).

Henrik Ibsen returned to Norway in 1891, but it was not the Norway he had left. With a stellar career behind him, the likes of which few authors or playwrights ever see, Ibsen passed away after a series of strokes in Kristiania (Oslo) on May 23, 1906 at the age of 78. He did particularly well in his last words, with his nurse assuring a visitor that the playwright was feeling a little better, only for Ibsen to mutter "on the contrary" and die.