Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint was a pioneer in many respects. Her artistic career began in classical painting, and she was among the first generations of female students to be admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Until she was in her 40s, she primarily painted portraits and landscapes, botanical studies, and commissioned works. Then, without any progressive transition, she shifted from traditional painting to abstraction, creating in a completely free and unconventional manner. Long after her death, Hilma af Klint has become internationally recognized and celebrated as an early pioneer of abstract art.

Hilma af Klint grew up in a naval officer's family in Stockholm and spent her summers on Adelsö in Lake Mälaren. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and until around 1908, she had her studio at Hamngatan 5 near Kungsträdgården in Stockholm. The so-called Ateljéhuset was the cultural hub of the time, with Blanchs Café and an Art Salon on the ground floor. In the upper floors, the Academy of Arts provided studios and residences for students who had completed their studies. It was particularly landscape, and later portrait painting, that engaged Hilma af Klint during this extrovert period as an artist.

The painting in this auction was likely painted during a summer stay at Adelsö on Lake Mälaren around the year 1900. The foreground is occupied by weather-beaten wild roses, and on the far water, beyond the reeds, a pair of swans glide through the misty sunlight.

Alongside her great interest in nature, Hilma af Klint was drawn early to the spiritual world and participated in spiritualist circles in Stockholm. In 1896, the female group De Fem was formed, who believed they were in contact with spiritual beings they called The High Ones. Hilma af Klint felt chosen to carry out a major task; the series Paintings for the Temple. This work, carried out between 1906 and 1915, would change her life completely. The new language of form with its abstract and symbolic expression had nothing in common with anything she had ever painted or even seen.

Hilma af Klint has taken the art world by storm. From being virtually unknown, she is now equated with the greatest modern painters, and her works are considered groundbreaking. Long after her death, she has redrawn the map for early abstract art, both in Sweden and internationally.