A Life Between Norway and Denmark Stavanger, 1841. A child is born into a family of wealthy merchants, the son of Lauritz Wilhelm Hansen and Elisa Margaretha Sundt. The path ahead seems carved in stone: the takeover of the family business, Plough & Sundt. But the brush calls louder than the ledger. By 1859, the merchant's son is studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He moves through the halls of private schools and eventually finds himself at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The trajectory shifts toward the great art centers of Europe. In 1866, he arrives in Paris. He walks the sa…