Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Education and Mental Culture. Introd. by P. E. Lindström - 10. Fine Arts - Painting. By [C. R. Nyblom] Carl G. Laurin
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
paintinö.
517
(1695—1170), who came into the country about 1670 ami painted, amongst others,
Olof Rudbeck, the Elder (in Uppsala): likewise his relative George Des Marées
(1697—1775), who was born in Stockholm but, after producing many good
portraits in Sweden, transferred his activity to Germany. There may be
added J. F. Lemke (1631 —1711), summoned from Nuremberg, who painted at
Drottningholm Palace the battles of Charles X and Charles XI in Poland and
Scania. As we have seen, all these artists were either immigrants or, at any
rate, of foreign extraction. But, at the end of the long line, we have also to
remember two Swedes, Johan Sylvius (died 1695), who worked at the decoration
of Drottningholm with plafond paintings, and Erik Dahlberg (1625—1703), the
great engineer-general, who, in his youth, visited Italy and there studied drawing
at the side of his "portrayer", Klöcker, and later on, produced outline sketches,
as the basis for the battle-pieces of Lemke; and lastly, in his well-known
collection of copperplates of Swedish towns and manors called "Suecia antiqua
et hodierna", raised an artistic memorial to himself of lasting value.
It was the disciples of D. v. Krafft who, during the first third of the 18th
century, supplied the demands of the time in the art of painting, i. e. as
portraitists. These were, first, the two older men, J. D. Swartz (1678—1740) and
G. Schroder (1684—1750), then Lor. Pasch the Elder (1703—66), who, at the
beginning of the Period of Liberty, was fashionable as a portrait-painter, 0.
Arenius (1701—66), son of a clergyman in Uppland, who succeeded Pasch about
1740, and J. H. Scheffel (1690—1781), who lays a bridge between the old
manner of painting in dark colours and the fair tints of the rococo.
Thus, the way was paved for the French influence on Swedish painting, and
this became the prevailing influence when the Frenchman G. Taraval (1701—50),
on the impulse of K. G. Tessin, was called in, in 1732; in 1735, the Academy
of Painting was started by the drawing school of Taraval. He unselfishly
undertook to be the drawing-master at the new institution, persevering till his death,
and at the same time he worked on the decoration of the Royal Palace. The
first advocate of the French tendency was the Swede, G. Lundberg (1695—
1786). After living in Paris, 1717—45, and acquiring there the typical art of
the rococo — pastel-painting — in the studio of the Italian lady-painter,
Rosalba Carriera, he came home in 1745 and soon became the favourite painter of
high society. Lundberg himself was also a man of the world, such as the time
demanded, and was most successful in ladies’ portraits, among which certainly
the best is the unfinished picture of Mrs Schröder at the Academy of Arts.
He was the first to make a long stay in "the capital of taste" at that time,
and was followed by a whole succession of Swedish painters, who went to find
their artistic education in Paris. They came under the influence of the solid
technique of the French school, and many remained there as naturalized
Frenchmen for the rest of their careers.
Foremost amongst these men may be deemed Alex. Roslin (1718—93);
from his native town, Malmö, he came up to Stockholm in 1736 and there
studied under Schröder, after which he went to Germany and Italy in
1745 — everywhere painting for his living. At last, he arrived in Paris, 1752,
where, no later than 1753, he became a member of the Academy. There he
settled permanently. About 1775, he visited his native country and stayed for
some time in St. Petersburg. Otherwise he had his home in Paris, where he
had married, and there he died in the midst of the revolution. During the
days of his full power he was the painter of the aristocracy, and is now
numbered in France among the genuinely good painters: deeply characteristic
portraits of Linné and Louisa Ulrica stamp him as a psychologist. Possibly none
of his contemporaries possessed his sovereign technique in the handling of
materials. In Sweden, this art of his is represented by the large portrait of
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
