"Hängbjörken" (The silver birch)
Signed Ester Almqvist and dated 1900. Oil on canvas 100 x 110 cm.
Not allowed for export.
Carl G. Laurin; Lilla Bukowskis, Stockholm, Sale S064, April 25, 1994, lot 545; The Per Ekström Museum, Öland, Sweden; private collection.
The 1900 Paris Exposition ("L'Exposition Universelle"), April 14 - November 12, 1900; " 'Yngre Konstnärers' (Younger Artists') exhibition", Stockholm, October 1900; "VIII Internationale Kunstausstellung im Königlichen Glaspalast" ("Münchener Secession"), Münich, June 1 - end of October, 1901, no. 235 (under the title "Die Birke"); Konstnärsförbundet, Valand, Gothenburg, Sweden, April-May 1903; Konstnärsförbundet, Copenhagen, 1903; St. Louis World's Fair ("Louisiana Purchase Exposition"), April 30 - November 30, 1904, no. 1 (under the title "The Weeping Birch"); Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm, "Den otroliga verkligheten - 13 kvinnliga pionjärer", October 13, 1994 - January 8, 1995; Göteborgs Konstmuseum (Gothenburg Art Museum), Sweden, "Den otroliga verkligheten - 13 kvinnliga pionjärer", January 21 - March 19, 1995; Jönköpings läns museum (Jönköping County Museum), Sweden, "Ester Almqvist, måleri, teckningar och grafik", January 16 - March 21, 1999; Säfstaholm Castle, Vingåker, Sweden, " 'Jag längtar så att jag kan sprängas' -från nationalromantik till modernism - Ester Almqvist (1869-1934)", June 25 - August 28, 2011; Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm, "Symbolism och dekadens", September 19, 2015 - January 24, 2016, no. 5; Norrköpings Konstmuseum (Norrköping Art Museum), Sweden, "Jag lever i två världar. Ester Almqvist och konstlivet 1890-1934", Spring 2018; Malmö Konstmuseum (Malmö Art Museum), Sweden, "Jag lever i två världar. Ester Almqvist och konstlivet 1890-1934", December 1, 2018 - April 22, 2019.
Sixten Strömbom, "Nationalromantik och radikalism. Konstnärsförbundets historia 1891-1920", 1965, mentioned p. 472; Birgit Rausing, "Ester Almqvist och hennes krets", 1998, mentioned p. 68-74 and illustrated full page in colour p. 70.
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Ester Almqvist was a Swedish visual artist born in Bromma, Stockholm. She studied under Gustaf Cederström and Carl Larsson at Valand Academy in Gothenburg, as well as at the Artists' Association School of Painting in Stockholm. Almqvist was a close friend with med Tora Vega Holmström who convinced her to move to Skåne where many of her paintings were created. Almqvist adhered to the national romanticist tradition but her paintings anticipated the newly created neo impressionistic and expressionistic styles. She was renowned for her twilight paintings. "Sammankomsten" (The Gathering) is a well-known work found in the collections of the National Museum.
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