DOI Heft:
No. 126 (September, 1903)
DOI Artikel:Frantz, Henri: Allan Osterlind's etchings in colours
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19879#0292
Allan Osterlind's Coloured Etchings
Allan Osterlind was at first chiefly known to the
public as a painter, and while dealing now with
some of his etchings, I do not for a moment
forget the water-colourist—so rich and ripe in his
metier—to whom we owe many delightful things,
combining the somewhat melancholy charm we find
in almost all Scandinavian art with a verve, an
easy grace and a lightness of touch which Osterlind
has doubtless derived in some measure from his
land of adoption. Born at Stockholm, trained in
sculpture in Paris under Cavelier, but always
drawing by instinct, the artist has had a far from
sedentary life, and in travelling hither and thither
as his artist fancy prompted him, has ignored those
methods which so many artists use in order to
succeed. Osterlind has been content to produce
a great deal of work, with the fertility of one who
is incessantly demanding of Nature that she shall
give him novel emotions and varied sensations.
Thus it is that he ranges from the vaporous horizons
of Sweden to the bold, rich-toned scenes of Spain;
that after his pensive-featured Dalecarliennes he
paints the wild dance of the Spanish gitanas or the
fantastic tarantella of the Neapolitan girls. After
several sojournings on the coast of Brittany we find
him among the calm villages of La Creuse, at
Gargilesse, which at last retains the wandering artist.
Osterlind lives in the house that once was Georges
Sand's, and there he has gained the friendship of
that other master colourist, Leon Detroy.
Osterlind's works are scattered about Europe
in private collections and in art galleries. His
early pictures belong almost all to Sweden; his
Enfant blesse is in the Gottenburg Gallery, and
his Bapteme (Salon of 1887) in the Gallery at
Helsingfors. It was in 1887 that the French
government purchased another touching work from
his brush—his Maison Mortuaire. Also to be
remembered among his principal works are La Fin
de four (1888, Tours Gallery); Sur la Barriere
(1890, Bergen Gallery); his water-colour Ravau-
deuses (in the Ministry of Fine Arts); his Feu de
la Saint Jean, another rich water-colour like his
Portrait du Poete Rollinat; the Charmeur de Rats
4-
coloured etching (By permission of M. Pierrefort, Paris.) by a. osterlind
276
Allan Osterlind was at first chiefly known to the
public as a painter, and while dealing now with
some of his etchings, I do not for a moment
forget the water-colourist—so rich and ripe in his
metier—to whom we owe many delightful things,
combining the somewhat melancholy charm we find
in almost all Scandinavian art with a verve, an
easy grace and a lightness of touch which Osterlind
has doubtless derived in some measure from his
land of adoption. Born at Stockholm, trained in
sculpture in Paris under Cavelier, but always
drawing by instinct, the artist has had a far from
sedentary life, and in travelling hither and thither
as his artist fancy prompted him, has ignored those
methods which so many artists use in order to
succeed. Osterlind has been content to produce
a great deal of work, with the fertility of one who
is incessantly demanding of Nature that she shall
give him novel emotions and varied sensations.
Thus it is that he ranges from the vaporous horizons
of Sweden to the bold, rich-toned scenes of Spain;
that after his pensive-featured Dalecarliennes he
paints the wild dance of the Spanish gitanas or the
fantastic tarantella of the Neapolitan girls. After
several sojournings on the coast of Brittany we find
him among the calm villages of La Creuse, at
Gargilesse, which at last retains the wandering artist.
Osterlind lives in the house that once was Georges
Sand's, and there he has gained the friendship of
that other master colourist, Leon Detroy.
Osterlind's works are scattered about Europe
in private collections and in art galleries. His
early pictures belong almost all to Sweden; his
Enfant blesse is in the Gottenburg Gallery, and
his Bapteme (Salon of 1887) in the Gallery at
Helsingfors. It was in 1887 that the French
government purchased another touching work from
his brush—his Maison Mortuaire. Also to be
remembered among his principal works are La Fin
de four (1888, Tours Gallery); Sur la Barriere
(1890, Bergen Gallery); his water-colour Ravau-
deuses (in the Ministry of Fine Arts); his Feu de
la Saint Jean, another rich water-colour like his
Portrait du Poete Rollinat; the Charmeur de Rats
4-
coloured etching (By permission of M. Pierrefort, Paris.) by a. osterlind
276