EXAMPLE PAGE-EBOOK-CATALOG-Salon Dessin - Flipbook - Page 81
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Jean ALAUX
of the picture, by the infantry rushing at the enemy,
A man walking towards the right holding a stick,
bayonets in hand.
study for Louis XIV
This study of a man in contemporary dress is a
Eugène DELACROIX (1798-1863)
study for the figure of Louis XIV in the large painting Figures, after Rubens’ Assumption of the Virgin
of the Capture of Valenciennes, painted by Alaux in After Rubens’ Assumption of the Virgin, painted
1837 for the Galerie des Batailles at the Château de around 1616-1618 and now in the Kuntsmuseum
Versailles.
in Düsseldorf. Delacroix copied an engraving in
The siege of Valenciennes took place between
the opposite direction to the painting, probably by
November 1676 and March 1777, during the Dutch Paulus Pontius.
War. On 17 March, at 9 o’clock in the morning, two
companies of musketeers, a hundred grenadiers, a
battalion of guards and a battalion of the Picardy re- Eugène DELACROIX (1798-1863)
giment launched the assault on the fortification. The Figures, after Rubens’ Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence
surprise was total, the defenders retreating without After Rubens’ Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, painted
being able to slow down the advance of the French around 1615 and now in the Alte Pinakothek in
troops. The French soldiers penetrated the fortress Munich. Delacroix copied an engraving in the same
and managed to lower the drawbridge. Alaux depic- direction as the painting and not the one by Lucas
ted the moment when Louis XIV entered the city.
Vorsterman which is in the opposite direction.
The Galerie des Batailles, the largest room in the
Château, is the most important element of the historical galleries created by Louis-Philippe. Designed Félix VALLOTTON (1865-1925)
and built from 1833 onwards, it was solemnly inau- The sleeper
gurated on 10 June 1837 and was the highlight of the A study for a woodcut published in La Revue
Musée de l’Histoire de France. Louis-Philippe com- Blanche of 15 March 1896 (p. 269) as an illustration
missioned 33 paintings representing the great bat- to a poem, “Exodes et ballades. Frères, il faut dormir“,
tles that marked French history, from Clovis’ victory by Romain Coolus.
at Tolbiac to Napoleon’s victory at Wagram in 1809. The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by
This drawing and the following one are part of a
the Félix Vallotton Foundation.
group of fourteen sheets, all preparatory to paintings
by Alaux for the Musée de l’Histoire de France. The
four studies in this group for the Capture of Valen- Carl LARSSON
ciennes all show figures in contemporary dress,
Pears
whereas in the preparatory drawings for the Battle of In 1897, Carl Larsson bought a second property in
Denain, a painting made in 1839, the models are in Dalecarlia, a farm called “Spadarvet“. It served both
military dress from the time of Louis XIV.
as extra space for his family and friends, but also to
provide his growing family with the basic necessities
Jean ALAUX
of life. In 1905 he published his book Spadarvet, with
A sapper
illustrations of daily life during the different seasons.
Study for a figure on the right of the Battle of Denain, One of the illustrations, Äppleskörd, based on a
a huge painting (465 x 543 cm.) painted by Alaux
watercolour executed in 1904, depicts the apple
in 1839 to decorate the Galerie des Batailles in the harvest. Carl Larsson writes about it:
Château de Versailles, where it still stands. In the
“Vi måste redan midt i sommaren sätta stöd under
painting, the sapper is dressed in a tricorn and is
grenarna, för att ej dessa skulle brytas sönder af de
carrying a rifle and a dagger.
mognande astrakanerna, gravensteinerna och hvad
The Battle of Denain, which took place on 24 July
de alla heta... Och mos, sylt och gelé ha vi ätit både
1712, was a decisive episode in the War of the Spa- dag och natt under många månader, så att vi börja
nish Succession. It resulted in an unexpected victory längta efter bananer och dadlar. ... Äpplemos är godt
of the French troops commanded by Marshal de
i början och hälsosamt i slutet.“
Villars over the Austro-Hollanders of Prince Euge- (Already in midsummer we had to support the trees
ne. Alaux chose to depict the key moment when
so that they would not break under the pressure
a battalion of sappers, armed with axes, storms the of the ripe apples... And the mash, jam and jelly we
palisade at Denain. They are followed, on the left
have eaten day and night for many months, so that
we are beginning to crave bananas and dates..
Applesauce is good at first and healthy at the end).
Carl LARSSON
Prinsessan Törnrosa
Preparatory to one of Carl Larsson’s 21 illustrations
for the book Läsning för barn by Zacharias Topelius
(1818-1898) published by Albert Bonniers Forlag in
1902. The drawings for the illustrations were made
in 1899 and 1900.
Karl NORDSTRÖM
In 1887, on his return from France, Nils Kreuger
(1858-1930) settled in Varberg, a coastal town 70
km south of Gothenburg in the province of Halland.
In 1893, he was joined by his friends and colleagues
Richard Bergh (1858-1919) and Karl Nordström.
Together they founded what came to be known
as the “Varbergsskolan“ (the Varberg School),
which contributed greatly to the creation of a pure
Swedish national romantic style in reaction to
realistic landscape painting.
This large drawing shows the so-called
“Granngårdarna“ (neighbouring houses) in
Apelviken, a bay south of Varberg, where
Kreuger, Nordström and Bergh stayed during the
summers. The houses became famous because
of Nordström’s painting Granngårdarna, the artist’s
masterpiece now in the Nationalmuseum in
Stockholm. Both houses still exist and Kreuger’s
decorations on the doors of the house where he
lived with his family have been preserved.
The group first exhibited their work at the 8th
exhibition of the Konstnärsförbundets (Artists’
Association) in Stockholm in the spring of 1894.
Among the works exhibited by Nordström was his
revolutionary painting Varbergs fäste (Sparbanken).
The drawing was acquired in 1900 by John
Kruse, an art historian who was curator at the
Nationalmuseum in Stockholm until 1912. He
published many books on Swedish artists, from
Sergel to Carl Larsson, to whom he was close, but
his greatest work is probably his posthumously
published book on Rembrandt’s drawings in 1920.
He also wrote an article on Karl Nordström in the
magazine Hvar 8 Dag (No. 7) in 1903.
Gunnar HALLSTRÖM
This design was used in 1926 by Sweden Post for
its annual stamp celebrating the bank holidays of 6
June.
In the background, the artist depicted a highly
symbolic place in Swedish history, the royal
mounds and the old church of Gamla Uppsala.
The three mounds are Viking tombs and have long
been regarded as the tombs of the gods Thor, Odin
and Freyr. The same background can be seen in a
drawing of The Farmers’ March from 1914 (cat. exp.,
Paris, Benjamin Peronnet Fine Art, Dessin suédois
1900, 2019, no. 10).
Axel TÖRNEMAN
Axel Törneman met Gudrun Høyer-Ellefsen (18751963), a Danish dancer, in 1904 in Paris. They got
married in 1908. This watercolour and gouache
must have been produced quite soon after their
meeting, as its style is so similar to that of the
works from 1904-1906, which show affinities with
expressionism and the influence of Edvard Munch.
At the 1967 exhibition, the present drawing was
on loan from Karin Alvin Ruqvist, the wife of Alvar
Törneman (1930-1967), the artist’s grandson.
Einar NERMAN
Made in Paris in 1910 when Jungstedt was on his
way to Spain and stopped off to meet his friend
Nerman. The latter lived in the French capital
between 1908 and 1910. He painted many portraits
of other Swedish artists in France at the time,
including Isaac Grünewald, Einar Jolin, Per Krogh
and Anna Sahlström.
Sigurd Jungstedt was a drawing teacher and
worked in Linköping and Malmö, among other
places, but especially in Eskilstuna (1930-1955).
He was also a newspaper illustrator, poster artist,
painter and playwright, etc. He first studied at the
Stockholm Technical School (now Konstfack) and,
from 1909, at Carl Wilhelmson’s painting school.
For another drawn portrait of Jungstedt by Nerman,
see cat. exp., Paris, Benjamin Peronnet Fine Art,
Dessins suédois 1900, 2019, no. 19.
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