Arent Lauritz Christensen, painter, printmaker and illustrator, was born on 30 April to Andrea Matilde Lange and Max Martin Christensen in Aarhus, Denmark.

Christensen studied in Oslo at the Statens Handverks-og Kunstindustriskole under Eivind Nielsen and Johan Nordhagen between 1911 and 1915. He learned etching from Nordhagen and, as early as 1913, Christensen became an active contributor to the Norwegian Association for Graphic Arts’ (Norsk forening for grafisk kunst) directories. In 1919, he helped found the Association of Norwegian Graphic Designers. He participated in the Association’s exhibitions and served as deputy chairman of the association between 1925 and 1926.

In 1926, Christensen became a member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art in London and numbed to London in the 1930s. He exhibited in the Society’s exhibitions which exposed his work to a wider audience. In 1931, his etching Danaides was included in Fine Prints of the Year and is illustrated as plate 59.

Christensen also illustrated books, including Olav den Helliges Saga as translated by Peter Andreas Munch, published in Oslo in 1930, and Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, translated by Henrik Rytter and published in Oslo in 1934-35.

Christensen experimented for years with a printmaking technique similar to aquatint. Wanting to simplify the technique, he replaced the metal plates and acid with respatex plates and a special fluid that contained fine gains of sand that was brushed onto the respatex. He formally introduced the technique, which became known as chrisgrafia, in 1973.

The work of Arent Christensen is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the New York Public Library, New York; the National Gallery and the Oslo City Museum, Oslo; and la Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.

Arent Lauritz Christensen died in Asker, Norway on 3 February 1982.