Knud Ibsen

In 1843 the Ibsen family returned to Skien, where they lived rent-free in a house owned by Christopher Blom Paus. Knud ran a business as a broker of grain and timber and as an emigration agent, with an office at Mudringen in Skien. The revolutions of 1848 hit his grain and timber business hard. In 1850 and at the behest of his brother Christian Cornelius Paus he was appointed acting harbourmaster of Skien, an important and prestigious position in the thriving port town. The port director and the Ministry of Naval Affairs approved Ibsen's candidacy to take over the position permanently, but suddenly it came to the port director's attention that Ibsen was not to be trusted. A letter from the port director claimed that Ibsen lacked the necessary diligence, security and order, and that he had not delivered all the accounts he was supposed to. "Judge Paus, who received the letter, did not mention that he was the candidate's half-brother, but strongly denied the allegations," writes Haave. In 1851 Fredrik Vauvert was appointed instead.^[5] In the 1857 tax records Knud Ibsen was listed as poor, and he was supported by his younger brothers until his death in 1877.^[5]

His son Henrik left home in 1843, and never saw his parents again after 1850. In old age Knud Ibsen was conscious and proud of his son's success, commenting that "when the Pauses are dead, they are dead, but my name will live on."^[6]

Traditional Ibsen historiography has often claimed that Knud Ibsen went bankrupt as a result of speculation, that he became an embittered, moody, alcoholic tyrant, and asserted that this influenced his son's work. New research by Jørgen Haave has refuted such claims about Knud Ibsen and pointed out that older biographical works have uncritically repeated numerous unfounded myths about both of Ibsen's parents, and about the playwright's childhood and background in general.^[5] Haave points out that Knud Ibsen's economic problems in the 1830s were mainly the result of the difficult times and something the Ibsen family had in common with many others of the bourgeoisie; Haave further argues that Henrik Ibsen had a relatively happy and comfortable childhood as members of Skien's social elite. According to Haave Henrik was pampered by his father and provoked peers with his superiority and arrogance. It was only in the late 1850s, long after Henrik had left home, that the Ibsen family disintegrated financially and socially, but even when he was officially "poor" and reliant on the support of his brothers, Knud had a maid.^[5]

Knud Ibsen is regarded by numerous literary scholars as the model for several characters in his son's plays, including most famously Jon Gynt in Peer Gynt^[7] and Old Ekdahl in The Wild Duck, but also Daniel Hejre in The League of Youth.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]} Henrik Ibsen did indeed confirm that he had used his own family as the model for the Gynt family, although he stated that their literary portrayal was an exaggeration.^[5]