Marie Helene Aarestrup (1826–1919) was a Norwegian artist who specialized in genre and portrait painting.
[1] A fine example of her work is a portrait of the Swedish singer Kristina Nilsson which she exhibited in 1865 at the Paris Salon.
After studying drawing at Hans Reusch's school in Bergen, she continued her training in Copenhagen (1843–44).
From 1859 to 1863, she studied under Jean-Baptiste-Ange Tissier in Paris, after which she spent six months in Düsseldorf as a student of Benjamin Vautier.
[2] After a rough period in Bergen in the mid-1860s when she had trouble making ends meet, she spent the rest of her life abroad, working both as a teacher and a painter.