Thore Hansen

Thore Hansen died on 8 September 2026, aged 84. Known to generations of readers for the Ruffen books he created with Tor Åge Bringsværd, the Norwegian illustrator and author also left an extensive body of work connected with Madsen’s music. ¹

Both men came from Fredrikstad. Hansen recalled how their collaboration began: they had made an agreement “over a glass of beer or three”. Madsen wanted him to draw the covers for the scores he hoped to write; Hansen agreed, and kept drawing as the publications accumulated. The recollection, originally attributed to Fredriksstad Blad, was reproduced by Kunstnerforeningen in its account of a 2022 Madsen celebration. That account described more than 150 Musikk-Husets Forlag publications, each with an individual Hansen illustration. ²

Their collaboration also reached the theatre. On 31 August 1976, Det Norske Teatret premiered Tor Åge Bringsværd’s children’s play Den store fargeslukaren. Madsen supplied the music; Hansen designed both the sets and costumes. The production, directed and choreographed by Runar Borge, brought their contributions together on the same stage. Sceneweb preserves the credits and premiere details, drawing on the theatre’s records and the surviving programme. ³

For musicians, however, the relationship is especially visible on the covers of Madsen’s published scores. In a 2020 article for Ballade, Arvid Skancke-Knutsen described Hansen’s drawings as humorous, poetic and distinctive. Kunstnerforeningen’s account likewise emphasised that the illustrations did not simply explain the music or offer a direct interpretation of it. ^{2, 4}

The friendship continued to find expression in recorded releases. Hansen created the cover for Sanger og romanser, the double album of Madsen’s songs produced by Frode Barth. In his introduction to the release, Barth explicitly described the two men as friends since youth and placed the album artwork within their long collaboration. Listeners encountering the songs were therefore also encountering another part of that shared history. ⁵

The exchange was not only from music to image. Madsen also wrote Thore Hansen! – Et musikalsk portrett for klaver: a musical portrait for piano, listed by the National Library of Norway. Here, the artist who had pictured so many of Madsen’s musical publications became the named subject of a composition himself. ⁶

The gallery brings together illustrations supplied for this website. Where an image has been matched to a published edition, the caption links to that publication. Together, the pictures offer a way to revisit a friendship through the work it left behind.