"From Marseille"
Signed Eric HAllström and dated Marseille 1928. Panel 32 x 46 cm.
Svensk-Franska konstgalleriet konstauktion, no 91, 1968, illustrated pl 8 (with wrong dating in the catalogue).
"Våren 1928 till senhösten 1929 tillbringade EH som Lindahls-stipendiat i Frankrike. I mitten av april 1928 slog hans sig ned men familjen i Pau för att uppleva den franska våren: -Min mening var att omedelbart återvända till Paris, men våren därnere var för mig något alldeles nytt, så jag beslöt mig för att stanna. Landskapet med de små byarna intresserade mig mycket - husen med sina brutna skiffertak - luften, allt blev för mig en målerisk upplevelse! (ur Eh:s till Konstakademien angivna reseberättelse)". Lennart Seth, "Eric Hallström - liv och konstnärskap", Raster förlag, 1988, text till bild nr 34.
Eric Hallström counts as one of the leading representatives for the Swedish naivism. He had his debut in 1917. Through his painting he communicates his memories from the outskirts of Stockholm, a motif he worked with for a long time. Hallström came into contact with Ångermanland through Pelle Molin's "Ådalens poesi", and shortly after he travelled there to experience the dark forests, the undulating horizon, powerful rivers and log floating, which later took shape in his Stockholm studio. His compositions become lighter when he traveled to South Africa and Italy in the 1920s, approaching a new objectivity, causing the naive elements to disappear. Hallström's storytelling talent is revived in the 1930s when he, using strong colors in a primitive style, expresses his experiences of people and landscapes.
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