Man with a table
Signed Olle Olsson Hagalund. Canvas 54 x 64.5 cm. Frame by the artist 71.5 x 83 cm
Acquired directly from the artist by the current owner's mother in the 1950s.
Eric Wennerholm, "Olle Olsson och hans Hagalund", Albert Bonniers, 1974, illl. p. 97.
Olle Olsson lived in Hagalund his entire life; born and raised in the house his grandfather had built in the late 1800s. Eventually, he would start his own family there, with his wife Maja and daughter Lena. His strong identification with and love for the place led him to adopt the artist name Olle Olsson Hagalund. He traveled a bit, particularly enjoying Paris and Copenhagen, but he always longed to return to his beloved Hagalund, no matter where he found himself in the world.
In this painting, a group of people, likely a family, are depicted in the midst of moving, with a man carrying a table on his head and some chairs on his arm. The beautiful old houses form a backdrop in light tones, highlighting the tree ablaze with autumn colors.
Olle Olsson Hagalund portrayed the people around him with compassion, tenderness, and admiration. The multifaceted society and all the hardworking individualists populate his expressive paintings.
Olle Olsson Hagalund has been described as a naive, expressionist, and romantic artist. He preferred to call himself a flaneur, observing the people he encountered throughout his life, which we, in later generations, get to experience through his fantastic, colorful, and vibrant paintings.