A Life Shaped by Wood and Oil Before he ever held a brush to canvas, Christian Eggen knew the honest weight of timber and the precision of tools. Born in Trondheim, he was a trained carpenter, a craft that perhaps instilled in him the disciplined hand required for his later pursuits. His early years in Norway were marked by the steadying influence of his family, being the son of a tanner-master named Gunerus Eggen and Stinchen Margrethe Bugge. This foundation of practical labor provided a stark contrast to the academic halls he would eventually inhabit. The transition from woodcraft to fine a…