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#0154
Bruno Liljefors
sun on their plumage descend towards the glitter-
ing surface of the water.
At the beginning of the 1890-decade, when
he was a little over thirty years old, Liljefors
moved out into the Stockholm archipelago, and
this opened up a new and important era in his art.
This archipelago, with its thousands of islands
and skerries, stretches many miles wide, from
Stockholm out to the open Baltic; its larger, inner
islands still retain somewhat of the nature of
the mainland, with large forests and fertile farms,
but nearer the Baltic the landscape becomes more
and more rugged and barren, and on the outer-
most islands the fir—our proud forest tree—creeps
close to the ground and spreads a soft carpet
between the wave-polished rocks. Here, especially
in the early spring, when the ice is breaking up,
there is a populous bird-life—an Eldorado for the
hunter. For Liljefors the acquaintance with this
nature, which in literature has found its most
distinguished interpreter in August Strindberg, was
like bathing in the Fountain of Youth, and from
this moment on, his art bears a bolder and stronger
stamp than ever before. The strong and hardy
life of the outermost archipelago is depicted by
him as it has never before been depicted in Swedish
art, and both as to subject and treatment these
pictures have a unique place in international art.
In this nature he has seen colours, lights, and
sceneries which have never before been conceived
and interpreted. He has both literally and figura-
tively been awake when the rest of us have been
asleep. The early morn has been with him sun-
rise, which wakes the sea from its slumber and
clothes it in a vesture of light unknown to us.
In the Thiel Gallery in Stockholm, incompar-
ably the finest collection of modern Swedish art in
existence, are to be found Liljefors's most renowned
works from this period. Look at this sunrise !
The sea lies saffron-yellow with pale blue re-
flections from the sky; the morning breeze has
already set the surface in motion, and the air is
full of ringing and murmuring sounds among
the rocks, where the sea-fowl tumble down
" SNIPE'
I24
(In the Ernest Thiel Collection, Stockholm)
BY BRUNO LILJEFORS-
sun on their plumage descend towards the glitter-
ing surface of the water.
At the beginning of the 1890-decade, when
he was a little over thirty years old, Liljefors
moved out into the Stockholm archipelago, and
this opened up a new and important era in his art.
This archipelago, with its thousands of islands
and skerries, stretches many miles wide, from
Stockholm out to the open Baltic; its larger, inner
islands still retain somewhat of the nature of
the mainland, with large forests and fertile farms,
but nearer the Baltic the landscape becomes more
and more rugged and barren, and on the outer-
most islands the fir—our proud forest tree—creeps
close to the ground and spreads a soft carpet
between the wave-polished rocks. Here, especially
in the early spring, when the ice is breaking up,
there is a populous bird-life—an Eldorado for the
hunter. For Liljefors the acquaintance with this
nature, which in literature has found its most
distinguished interpreter in August Strindberg, was
like bathing in the Fountain of Youth, and from
this moment on, his art bears a bolder and stronger
stamp than ever before. The strong and hardy
life of the outermost archipelago is depicted by
him as it has never before been depicted in Swedish
art, and both as to subject and treatment these
pictures have a unique place in international art.
In this nature he has seen colours, lights, and
sceneries which have never before been conceived
and interpreted. He has both literally and figura-
tively been awake when the rest of us have been
asleep. The early morn has been with him sun-
rise, which wakes the sea from its slumber and
clothes it in a vesture of light unknown to us.
In the Thiel Gallery in Stockholm, incompar-
ably the finest collection of modern Swedish art in
existence, are to be found Liljefors's most renowned
works from this period. Look at this sunrise !
The sea lies saffron-yellow with pale blue re-
flections from the sky; the morning breeze has
already set the surface in motion, and the air is
full of ringing and murmuring sounds among
the rocks, where the sea-fowl tumble down
" SNIPE'
I24
(In the Ernest Thiel Collection, Stockholm)
BY BRUNO LILJEFORS-