Bruno Liljefors
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Mallards amongst Water lilies.
Signed by Bruno Liljefors and dated 1917. Oil on canvas, 73 x 100 cm.
Provenance
Stockholms Auktionsverk, Kvalitetsauktion 10 - 14 November 1970, lot 574.
Bukowski Auktioner, Klassiska höstauktionen 583, 2-5 December 2014, lot 694.
Literature
Martha Hill, "Bruno Liljefors. The Peerless Eye", 1987, illustrated in colour p. 140.
Allan Ellenius, "Bruno Liljefors. Naturen som livsrum", 1996, mentioned and illustrated in colour p. 206-207.
More information
Ellenius writes the following about the auction's current painting: "It is dusk, as so often in the images of the lives of duck flocks in reeds and shoreline vegetation. The yellowed sky is reflected in an intricate weave of dark shadow fields and water lily leaves. Around the ducks, the surface is broken by a cobalt blue ripple that suggests the direction of the flock's movement across the still water. With maintained naturalism, the fields and patches of colour live their own life on the picture surface. Claude Monet's renowned water lily ponds in Giverny indicate both points of contact and differences in perceptions of nature."
Artist
Bruno Liljefors is the Swedish artist best known for his nature and animal motifs, especially in dramatic situations. Liljefors started with studies at the Academy of Arts in 1879, and continued 1882 in Düsseldorf where the studies revolved around animal painting. The journey then continued to Venice, Rome, Naples, Paris and Grez. Once back in Sweden, he began to draw and paint animals, especially cats and small birds, from the beginning in intimate interaction with nature. He then moved on to broader depictions of wild animals and nature, of seascapes with seabirds and of dramatic scenes of battles between birds. Liljefors is known as our country's foremost animal painter with a large production. Liljefors depicted, in contrast to the "idyllic" animal painting, the animals everyday life with a focus on movement, anatomy and their adaptation to the landscape. This is where the greatness of his painting lies, in the ability to show the animals in their proper environment. He has achieved this by hunting and observing. Well-known works of art are the paintings "Rävfamilj" (1886) and "Havsörnar" (1897), as well as the sculpture "Lek" (1930) at Stockholm Stadium. Liljefors is mainly represented at the National Museum, Waldemarsudde and the Thielska gallery in Stockholm.
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