he was the son of a butcher and grew up in copenhagen in a lower middle class/worker's milieu whose jargon is felt in much of his writings. after interrupted studies at the academy of art, he worked as a free-lance painter, illustrator and cabaret entertainer. already during world war i he was a well-known artist, and from about 1920 onward he was almost a national "institution" as a humorist, partly because of his versatile interests. he was for many years connected to the copenhagen newspaper "berlingske tidende" as a comic writer and cartoonist.