Norweigan coast
Signed Leander Engström. Executed around 1918. Watercolor 73 x 52 cm.
A-B. Svensk Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm.
Dr Hildebrand.
Stockholms auktionsverk, Moderna Kvaliten, 6 November, 2003, lot no 850.
The collection of Sven and Maudie Olerud.
Nils Palmgren, "Leander Engström", 1939, illustrated in black and white p. 75.
In 1908 Isaac Grünewald convinced Leander Engtröm to go to Paris to study the new modern avantgarde art. Although Engström was deeply inspired by this artistic movement in France, he was homesick and longed for his home in northern Sweden.
When Engström had an exhibition in Kristiania, Norway in 1916 he was very well received by the Norwegian critics. The same year he exhibited together with his friends Isaac Grünewald and Einar Jolin at Liljevalch’s konsthall in Stockholm. The following years are counted as the peak of the artist’s nordic oeuvre. His colour palette in blond nuances shows his brilliant sence of colours. In a very bold way he depicts the mountains in Lapland and the areas around Lofoten in a very expressionistic manner where the love for his masters Matisse and Gauguin are clearly visible.