[3] Olaf Lange is best known for his symbolistic paintings and the multicolored aquatint etchings he made between 1903 and 1912, which are closely linked to the continental Art Nouveau style.
Lange started drawing and painting early in life, and among his teachers were both his cousin Frida Hansen (1855–1931) and Kitty L. Kielland (1843–1914).
His teenage paintings and writings reveal Lange's lifelong interest in literature, including the works of Shakespeare and Goethe.
Olaf Lange studied at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1897 until 1901,[5] where teachers were Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury.
Lange drew his inspiration from Arnold Böcklin, Frida Hansen, Gustav Klimt and Franz von Stuck, and from Italian frescoes and Japanese art.
In his articles in the Stavanger Aftenblad newspaper he wrote about the tense situation building up in Munich during the leading up to the Second World War.
Lange's art is represented in the collections of several museums, including in Rome, Venice, Munich, Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Paris, Brighton, Chicago and San Francisco.