John Bauer
”Lena och riddaren dansa” (Lena dances with the knight)
Signed John Bauer and dated 1915. Watercolour, heightening white, indian ink and pencil on paper 26 x 28.5 cm.
Import VAT
Import VAT (12%) will be charged on the hammer price on this lot. For further details please contact customer service +46 8-614 08 00.
Provenance
Mrs. Mathilda Wikström.
The collection of dentist Emil Christenson.
Bukowski Auktioner, Stockholm, Sale 384, "Höstauktionen", 5-8 November 1969, lot 248 (under the title "Prinsen och prinsessan i paradiset", illustrated Pl. 44).
Private collection (acquired at the above Sale).
Subsequently by descent.
Exhibitions
Sveriges Allmänna Konstförening, 1915.
Kungl. Akademien för de fria konsterna (Royal Academy of Art), Stockholm, "John Bauer. Minnesutställning", 1934, no. 276.
Literature
Per Bjurström, Gunnar Lindqvist m. fl. , "Bauer. En konstnär och hans sagovärld", 1981, illustrated p. 85 (under the title "Dansen på ängen").
More information
Original illustration for W.E. Björk's fairy tale 'Guldnycklarna' in "Bland tomtar och troll", 1915.
Import VAT will be charged on the hammer price on this lot.
For further details please contact customer service +46 8 6614273.
Designer
John Bauer was born in 1882 and was a Swedish artist, primarily renowned for his paintings and illustrations in the early editions of the fairy tale collection "Bland tomtar och troll”. Thanks to his magical illustrations of princesses, trolls, and giants, Bauer has significantly influenced our perception of creatures and mythical figures in traditional Swedish stories and Nordic folklore.
Bauer grew up in Jönköping, and a large part of his artistry was inspired by the mystical forests of Småland, where trolls and other beings seemed to emerge from the rocky outcrops. During his years of study, he was fascinated by early German and Italian painting but soon returned to the Swedish fairytale forest. At the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, he met his future wife, Esther Ellqvist, who often posed as a model and served as inspiration for the princess Tuvstarr in Bauer's works.
Most of Bauer's paintings are created using watercolors, although he has also produced some using oil. By the 1910s, thanks to his fairy tale paintings, Bauer was already an established and beloved artist when he chose to conclude his role as a fairy tale illustrator. In his final years, he explored other imaginative expressions that would shape Bauer's last works, such as "The Dancing Nymphs" and "Blue Eva". John Bauer's final significant painting was created for the auditorium at Karlskrona Girls' School in 1917, an oil painting depicting the goddess Freja, with his wife Esther as a model.
The entire Bauer-Ellqvist family died in a boat accident when the steamer Per Brahe sank during an autumn storm on Vättern on November 20, 1918.