DOI Heft:
Nr. 166 (December, 1910)
DOI Artikel:Hedberg, Tor: Bruno Liljefors, a Swedish painter of animals
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19869#0150
Bruno Liljefors
has hardly looked at them. Neither has he, like
the majority of his competitors, even the greatest,
studied the wild animals in a menagerie. It is on
the experiences of the chase and hunt that his
studies are based—all his paintings may, in a
certain sense, be called hunting pictures, but in
so doing we must not think of the great Flemish
hunting scenes, or of the English representations
of the classic fox hunt. Liljefors's paintings are
inspired by the lone hunter's sensations and ex-
periences—by all that fills his open-air life with
joy and interest. It is the life, nature, and habits
of the game which he knows with an accuracy not
inferior to that of the scientifically educated zoo-
logist; but with the imagination of the artist he
has, beyond the interest of the hunter and zoo-
logist, reached the very life interest, and succeeded
in so eliminating the observer that he is not even
invisibly present in the picture. It is this which
is so admirable in Liljefors's animal pictures, and
whereby they infinitely differ from the ordinary,
with their either sentimental or caricature concep-
tion of the animal. Liljefors does not stand out-
side his subject and describe it, it all lives within
him, in his imagination, which is so filled with
reality that one does not even need the control of
direct observation. From his earliest youth Lilje-
fors has been a passionate hunter, and has always
lived an open-air life. He has himself told me
that when he first saw a wild animal in its natural
120
surroundings he was spell-bound. This was also
the case when he first saw a bird's nest. It is
a strange characteristic that he, the future great
hunter, was for a long time exceedingly afraid
of the report of a gun, so much so, indeed, that
he did not dare stand by a person who fired
one. Thus his weapon was at first the bow and
arrow, or a stone. His most cherished pastimes
were strolling in the woods and drawing. Between
the ages of five and ten he drew and painted the
sea in storm, shipwrecks, and heroes from Greek
history. The sea, which he then had never seen,
has since entirely won his devotion, while he has
deserted the Greek heroes.
After a few short years of not very important
study, during which time he spent a few months
under the instruction of the animal painter, Pro-
fessor Deyker, of Diisseldorf, he married and
settled down in his country home near Upsala.
This is flat country bordering upon the northern
forests, and is one of the oldest cultivated parts
of Sweden. Here he lived a kind of new settler's
life, surrounded by his family and his tame and
wild animals; and here it was that he did his real
studying all by himself, with Nature as his teacher,
and soon became a master himself.
His pictures from this period are characterised
by minute detail which, however, expresses move-
ment with impressive vivacity. Here we find an
evident affinity with Japanese art, although it
has hardly looked at them. Neither has he, like
the majority of his competitors, even the greatest,
studied the wild animals in a menagerie. It is on
the experiences of the chase and hunt that his
studies are based—all his paintings may, in a
certain sense, be called hunting pictures, but in
so doing we must not think of the great Flemish
hunting scenes, or of the English representations
of the classic fox hunt. Liljefors's paintings are
inspired by the lone hunter's sensations and ex-
periences—by all that fills his open-air life with
joy and interest. It is the life, nature, and habits
of the game which he knows with an accuracy not
inferior to that of the scientifically educated zoo-
logist; but with the imagination of the artist he
has, beyond the interest of the hunter and zoo-
logist, reached the very life interest, and succeeded
in so eliminating the observer that he is not even
invisibly present in the picture. It is this which
is so admirable in Liljefors's animal pictures, and
whereby they infinitely differ from the ordinary,
with their either sentimental or caricature concep-
tion of the animal. Liljefors does not stand out-
side his subject and describe it, it all lives within
him, in his imagination, which is so filled with
reality that one does not even need the control of
direct observation. From his earliest youth Lilje-
fors has been a passionate hunter, and has always
lived an open-air life. He has himself told me
that when he first saw a wild animal in its natural
120
surroundings he was spell-bound. This was also
the case when he first saw a bird's nest. It is
a strange characteristic that he, the future great
hunter, was for a long time exceedingly afraid
of the report of a gun, so much so, indeed, that
he did not dare stand by a person who fired
one. Thus his weapon was at first the bow and
arrow, or a stone. His most cherished pastimes
were strolling in the woods and drawing. Between
the ages of five and ten he drew and painted the
sea in storm, shipwrecks, and heroes from Greek
history. The sea, which he then had never seen,
has since entirely won his devotion, while he has
deserted the Greek heroes.
After a few short years of not very important
study, during which time he spent a few months
under the instruction of the animal painter, Pro-
fessor Deyker, of Diisseldorf, he married and
settled down in his country home near Upsala.
This is flat country bordering upon the northern
forests, and is one of the oldest cultivated parts
of Sweden. Here he lived a kind of new settler's
life, surrounded by his family and his tame and
wild animals; and here it was that he did his real
studying all by himself, with Nature as his teacher,
and soon became a master himself.
His pictures from this period are characterised
by minute detail which, however, expresses move-
ment with impressive vivacity. Here we find an
evident affinity with Japanese art, although it