Benjamin perronnet V5 - Flipbook - Page 73
à Varberg, sur la côte ouest, pour travailler
avec Richard Bergh (1887-1919) et Nils Kreuger
(1858-1930), ses plus proches amis depuis
ses études à l’Académie. Il s’achemine de plus
en plus vers une simpli昀椀cation du sujet
et réalise la fusion des conceptions symbolistes
et synthétiques dans ses représentations
de l’âpre paysage rocheux de la province
de Bohuslän. Au cours des années suivantes,
Nordström vit à Stockholm mais revient
toujours passer l’été sur l’île de Tjörn.
A heavy, dark sky overhangs a meadow leading to
dwellings - a village or the suburbs of Stockholm? encircled by electric poles that punctuate the background.
This large drawing is one of the many «noirs» that
Nordström produced at the turn of the twentieth century,
no doubt inspired by the works of Seurat that he had
admired in Copenhagen in 1892 and 1893. Like Seurat,
Nordström liked to depict evidence of the industrialization
and urbanization of the landscape, but he chose to
represent them in large formats, whereas Seurat favored
relatively modest-sized sheets.
Although Karl Nordström’s fame never reached the
international renown of Carl Larsson (1853-1919) or Anders
Zorn (1860-1920), he was a major 昀椀gure in Swedish
painting at the turn of the twentieth century.
His importance is due as much to his work as to his
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activities as head of the «Konstnärsförbundet» (Artists’
Association), founded in 1886. For several years, he was
president of this movement, which brought together the
avant-garde of Swedish artists. Nordström began his
studies at the Stockholm Academy of Fine Arts in 1875,
but left when he was refused promotion to the next class.
He decided to pursue his studies alone. He came to Paris
for the 昀椀rst time in 1881. The following year, he visited
the seventh Impressionist exhibition, and exhibited two
landscape studies at the Salon.
It seems that Nordström, more than most Swedes, was
seduced by Impressionism, as evidenced by the works he
executed at Grèz-sur-Loing, near Fontainebleau, where he
spent the summer in the company of numerous compatriots.
After returning to Sweden between 1882 and 1884, he
returned to Paris and Grèz, where he made friends with
August Strindberg (1849-1912) and took an active part
in the Opposition movement against the Académie des
Beaux-Arts. After his 昀椀nal return to Sweden in 1886,
Nordström lived for a time in Stockholm, before settling in
1893 in Varberg, on the west coast, to work with Richard
Bergh (1887-1919) and Nils Kreuger (1858-1930), his
closest friends since his studies at the Academy. He moved
increasingly towards simpli昀椀cation of subject matter, and
achieved a fusion of symbolist and synthetic conceptions
in his depictions of the rugged rocky landscape of the
Bohuslän province. In the following years, Nordström lived
in Stockholm, but always returned to spend summers on the
island of Tjörn.