Bruno Liljefors

The compositional structure of this sublime panorama differs from that of earlier landscapes by the artist. Its elements are frontally oriented and have been organized in more or less horizontal fields which can be read as parallel to the picture plane. With paintings such as ”Sunset above the vast Sea” from 1894, Bruno Liljefors participated in the renewal of Swedish landscape painting that took place during these years. The new orientation was most evident in the work of the so called School of Varberg – Karl Nordström, Nils Kreuger and Richard Bergh – but could also be seen in the work of Prince Eugen. These artists sought to define the identity of the Swedish landscape in highly personal, subjective pictures, and at the same time, to create a new artistic expression. French Symbolism and Synthetism, in particular Gauguin, played an important role in this process. The new, National Romantic, art was characterized by simplified form and a freer, more lyrical use of colour. The artists often chose to paint twilight moods which emerged the details into larger wholes. With its horizontal fields and its separation of colours, ”Sunset above the vast Sea”, resembles a spectrum – as if Liljefors had wanted to demonstrate the significance of colour in the new landscape. Allan Ellenius, professor of art history and renowned authority on Bruno Liljefors, writes the following about ”Sunset above the vast Sea” in his book ”Bruno Liljefors” from 1996: "With its vibrating and almost watercolour-like brush technique, the picture is a study of the coloristic luminosity that also characterizes the sky in 'Morning Mood by the Sea' from 1896. The group of birds is reduced to a secondary matter in the wide water panorama. The painting is a reminder of the intense summer in the archipelago 1894, when the artist's personal experience of nature was decisively enriched and his interest in colours and their possibilities was awoken".