Ivar Arosenius

From the exhibition at the Nordiska Akvarellmuseet(Nordic Watercolour Museum) in 2005, from the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter's review:

‘Ivar Arosenius (1878-1909) was the quintessential bohemian, an image he himself liked to cultivate. He lived a short but intense life in self-imposed isolation, often in the pub. Arosenius' frenzy can be explained by frustration. He suffered from haemophilia, a condition that took his life when he was just 30 years old. After meeting the artist (and future wife) Eva Adler in 1905, he lived a somewhat calmer life. They had a daughter, Lillan, to whom Arosenius dedicated perhaps his most famous work, "Kattresan" ("The Cat's Journey").

Arosenius preferred to paint smaller works in watercolour and gouache. He felt that oil painting was too demanding a medium for his intentions.’

Ivar Arosenius' short career began immediately after the breakthrough of the great fairy-tale masters in the 19th century, with exalted authors such as Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. Ivar Arosenius further developed the visual art of fairy tales, where humour and joke illustrations reached an artistic level and became accepted as an art form. Ivar Arosenius refrained from anchoring his work in texts; his comic drawings and watercolours were allowed to speak for themselves. His clear and immediate images, rooted in folk art, paved the way for understanding by a wide audience.

Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary of Svenska Akademien, runs the ongoing art project Aroseniusarkivet.se. An innovative digital museum about Ivar Arosenius' oeuvre. The auction's work is registered and included in the official Ivar Arosenius archive. The work is titled "Flanerade par" (‘Strolling couple’), dated 1901. Mixed media on paper, 13.5 x 10.5 cm.