John Bauer
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Two young shepherds outside the city walls
Signed JB. Ink, hightening white and watercolour on paper. 25 x 22 cm.
Literature
John Bauer, "John Bauer: en konstnär och hans sagovärld", LiberFörlag in collaboration with Nationalmuseum,Stockholm, 1982, compare drawing on p. 180-181.
More information
Jönköping's renowned fairy tale artist, John Bauer, was born in 1882. His beloved depictions of trolls, elves, gnomes, and other mythical creatures are inspired by the landscape of Småland. By the age of 25, when he was drawing the famous fairy tale series "Among Gnomes and Trolls," he was already one of Sweden's foremost fairy tale artists.
Bauer had a deep connection to nature from an early age. After completing his studies in Stockholm, he returned to his hometown and began searching for a home for himself and Ester. Eventually, they found Villa Björkudden, a beautiful cottage located by the water in the scenic area of Bunn. Here, they were close to nature, and John would often spend entire days in the forest. Among the pine trees and moss-covered rocks, John would see figures that he transformed into trolls, gnomes, elves, and other mythical creatures in his drawings.
Artist
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.