Bruno Liljefors

Bruno Liljefors reflects in his art the recurring interest in nature that he and his generation of artists were preoccupied with. In 1882 he completed his academic studies in Sweden and traveled across Denmark to Düsseldorf, where he visited the animal painter C.F. Deiker. On his way back home he visited the artists' colony in Grez-sur-Loing. Artists such as Carl Larsson and Karl Nordström had settled here in the 1880s to explore the new French plein air painting. When the artists returned to Sweden, they took the lessons learned in France with them and began exploring the local countryside.

While many of Liljefors' colleagues depicted the human presence in nature, Liljefors chose to depict the the lives of animals throughout his career. In the present painting from 1920, Bruno Liljefors has skillfully excluded detailed environmental depictions to keep the viewer's focus on the dynamic between the two birds. Here we have the opportunity to observe the artist's superb skill in depicting the eagles.