Hilding Linnqvist
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A view from Södermalm over Kungsholmen, Stockholm
Signed HL. Canvas 73 x 101 cm.
Literature
Bo Lagercrantz, "Hilding Linnqvist", 1986, compare with painting "Sommarnatt" from 1945 illustrated on p. 97.
More information
Bo Lagercrantz description of "Sommarnatt" 1945:
"He fell in love with three trees on the hill towards Söder Mälarstrand. In 1945, he painted yet another summer night with the same focus. The twilight made the bay blue-white and the trees were almost black because of the night sky. The painting contains more nature than city. And although it captures half of Stockholm, there is not a single person in the painting. The focus is on the stillness of the city in the middle of the night. Yet, a breeze creates movements in the trees. The distant background is made up of pastel watercolours. Everything stops. The buildings of Stockholm become like a long, shadowing wall. Above this, the sky has a powerful movement. This reflects on the water, which portrays the shimmering sky. Throughout 1945, he painted a number of variations of this specific view."
Artist
Hilding Linnqvist is one of Sweden's most important naïve painters and became established and known early on for his colourful compositions. Linnqvist was a key figure in lyrical naivism in Sweden, with a style of painting that departed from the technical perfection he had been trained in. Several Swedish artists joined this innovative direction for the time. After studying at the Technical School and the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, he was inspired by Edward Munch and Ernst Josephson's malaise art, which led him towards a freer and more uninhibited style of painting. During the 1920s, Linnqvist travelled abroad several times and his colours became brighter and his subjects more detailed.
He later painted coastal scenes and portraits, among other things. By the early 1940s, Hilding Linnqvist was an established and well-travelled artist, as well as a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1939-1941 and the subject of a major exhibition there in 1940.