Elsa Beskow

Bukowskis is pleased to present the original illustration for the cover of the book ‘Mors lilla Olle och andra visor av Alice Tegnér med bilder av Elsa Beskow’ which was first published in 1903. The motif of Olle sitting on a stone in the birch grove is executed in watercolour and heightening white. A sea of anemones surrounds Olle as he sits with his still empty basket and a dandelion in his hand. The motif is elegantly framed in the Art Nouveau manner with a garland of birch catkins at the top of the picture and anemone flowers at the lower corners.

Elsa Beskow and Alice Tegnér's collaboration was long-lasting and very successful. Before their joint success, the two had made a name for themselves separately. Alice Tegnér had won an audience in Djursholm for her popular children's songs, and they quickly gained a foothold in bourgeois homes. The theologian and artist Nathanael Beskow also settled in Djursholm with his wife Elsa. In 1889, Elsa was widely acclaimed for her first book ‘Sagan om den lilla, lilla gumman’, which was followed by a series of fairy tales and illustrations. Elsa Beskow dominated Swedish children's book publishing for over 50 years.

The two women met for the first time in 1895 in Djursholm when Tegnérs invited Beskows to their home. According to Alice's diary entries, they were offered: ‘mushroom stew, kale soup, roast veal, sugar snap peas, cucumber, apple compote. Coffee in the garden’. The event was a great success and the two subsequently got to know each other and a professional relationship grew out of their friendship. ‘Mors lilla Olle och andra visor av Alice Tegnér’ was published in 1903 and became the first collaboration between Tegnér and Beskow.

The songbook included the popular songs ‘Blåsippan’, ‘Ekorren’, ‘Mors lilla Olle’, Bä bä vita lamm", “Sov du lilla videung”, and “Sockerbagaren”. What made the songs a success was that both Elsa and Alice, alongside their creative work, looked after their homes and children, so the songs are based on stories from everyday life, while the children in the illustrations were largely taken from their own households.

Today, more than 120 years later, their work is still in constant demand and attracting new audiences.