Carl Wilhelmson
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"Gitana"/"Den svarta killingen"
Signed C. Wilhelmson and dated 1913. Canvas 85 x 51 cm.
Exhibitions
Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, "Konstnärsförbundet", May - June 1916, cat .no 573.
Literature
No 198 in the artist's own catalog (under the year 1913).
More information
Carl Wilhelmson, who traveled with fellow artist Yngwe Berg, sought out the Andalusian countryside to paint the truly vernacular and genuinely Spanish. The Spanish painting trips were crucial to Wilhelmson's artistic development. It was there that he discovered and was particularly fascinated by the strong light with its shifts and shadows. He explores this in the current painting in the auction, which was probably executed in Ronda during this period.
Wilhelmson portrays a Spanish girl standing in the street with a black lamb in her arms. She stands on a shady part of the street while the sun shines behind her. A similar composition is found in Wilhelmson's most famous work from Ronda, namely "Andalusian Family" (sold for 1,100,000 SEK at Bukowski's International Autumn Auction in 2002). Both works are from 1913 and the similarities in the settings give the feeling that they were painted on the same day in the same neighborhood in Ronda.
The artist's paintings from Spain are characterized by a developed treatment of sunlight. He then applied this experience to his motifs from Bohuslän after his return to Sweden.