Pelle Swedlund oljemålning

PELLE SWEDLUND (1865-1947): Gatljus (Kväll) - gatuscen från Chioggia, Italien, signerad och daterad 03/PS, olja på duk, 62,8x51.2 cm

In a period gilt slipframe

Proveniens:
Gustaf Swedlund, konstnärens bror, därefter genom arv till 1988,
Christie´s, London, Scandinavian pictures, drawings, prints and sculpture, 24 March 1988, lot 236 (estimate £4-6000, unsold)

Utställd:
(Probably) Stockholm, Konstnärshuset, Erik Hedberg, Wilhelm Smith och Pelle Swedlund: separatutställning i Konstnärshuset, March 1905, no. 68 "Gård i Chioggia (vinterkväll)"
(Probably) Stockholm, Konstnärshuset, Erik Hedberg, Wilhelm Smith och Pelle Swedlund, March 1906, no. 52 "Gård i Chioggia (vinterkväll)" or no. 53 "Gård i Chioggia (septemberkväll)"
Stockholm, Konstnärshuset, Erik Hedberg, Wilhelm Smith och Pelle Swedlund: separatutställning i Konstnärshuset, 1912, under Chioggia, no. 47 "Gatmotiv (kväll), 1903"

Chioggia is a small town situated on an island 25 km. south of Venice.

Swedlund lived in Italy during various periods between 1903 and 1912 and in various places. He stayed in Chioggia between 1903-04, in Rome 1902, 1904, 1908 and 1911 and in Montefiacone in 1905, 1909, and 1912. In 1905 he participated with eight paintings in the Internationalen Kunstausstellung im Kgl. Glaspalats zu München (Nos. 1243-51), the majority of which appears to have been painted in Italy (in the catalogue he is then listed as living on Via San Giuseppe 2 in Rome). One of his paintings with a twilight mood painted in Italy is illustrated in Vittorio Pica´s book on Swedish art, Arte Ed Artisti Nella Svezia Dei Giorni Nostri 1915, p. 17. A description of one of his italian pictures in the exhibition in Stockholm in 1905 in a review in the periodical Idun, 9 March 1905 is a fitting description also of the present work:

"Pelle Swedlunds dukar röja kosmopoliten och den estetiske drömmaren. Han slog igenom med sina intensivt kända Brüggebilder och spelar äfven här på samma strängar, ehuru motiven denna gång äro öfvervägande italienska. Som ett prof på hans inåtvända konst meddela vi en afbildning af en italiensk kvällsstämning, "Solen går ned", som ganska väl ger hans temperaments clair-obscur. ["Swedlund´s canvases reveal him as a cosmopolitan and a dreamer. His break-through as an artist was his pictures from Bruges. Although the subjects in the present works for the most part are taken from Italy, he plays on the same clair-obscure temperament. An example of his introperspective art is a picture depicting an Italian sunset "The sun setting", here illustrated)."

Having completed his studies at the Swedish Academy (1889-92) Swedlund went to Paris where he met Paul Gauguin and together they experimented in making woodcuts. His contact with the Nabis circle of painters lead him in 1898 to visit Bruges, a place which was to fascinate and inspire him throughout his career. At the turn of the century, Bruges, which was known as Bruges-La-Morte following Georges Rodenbach´s novel of that title, was a cult gathering place for Symbolist and mystical painters and writers and was particularly significant for certain Swedish painters. The instant success of Oscar Levertin´s novel Brugge in Sweden provided a context for the understanding of Swedlund´s paintings. Various ancient towns in Sweden gained something of the same reputation as Bruges had throughout Europe, Birka and Visby attracted their own communities of artists, and Swedlund visited both of these places. From 1932 to 1946, Swedlund was the curator of the Thielska Gallery in Stockholm. Among the members of the Association of Swedish Artists, Swedlund was one of the few who impressed the leadership of the Swedish Artists Society (Konstnärsförbundet), which included on it´s committee of artists Eugéne Jansson, Nils Kreuger, Karl Nordström, Richard Bergh, Christian Ericsson and Robert Thegerström. This applied particularly to his paintings from Bruges whi