Sigrid Hjertén

In the autumn of 1911, Sigrid Hjertén and Isaac Grünewald managed to rent a small attic room at Kornhamnstorg in Gamla Stan. They were young, poor and had just returned from Paris, where they had both been apprenticed to Henri Matisse at the Academie Matisse. In November, their son Iván is born and Isaac and Sigrid marry. It is important for Sigrid to continue painting, and childcare is arranged by Isaac's sisters Dora and Bertha, who both take care of little Iván and model for him. From the windows of the small apartment, Sigrid looks down on the bustle of the square and the intense harbour life along the quays. On land, there are piles of wood on a carpet of bark and sticks with a fresh smell of tar and resin, along the quays the ships are crowded, the wooden hulls creak and creak and the masts hang sails to dry. At dusk, the heavy sails moved like ghosts, and the sounds must have been quite frightening for anyone who ventured between the woodpiles. Ships came from the archipelago to unload their goods, and trade was lively, especially in the mornings. There is plenty of inspiration, and Sigrid's imaginative world, combined with her passion for art, makes her painting begin to flourish. A number of works were created with bold perspectives and city views from Kornhamnstorg, including ‘Från Kornhamnstorg’, 1912 (Malmö Museum), ‘Torget’, 1913 (Stockholm Stadsförvaltning) and the current painting ‘Den blå skutan’ 1912.
Sigrid Hjertén exhibited the painting herself on several occasions during the 1910s, and in our own time the painting has been in demand in connection with exhibitions both in Sweden and abroad. In ‘Den blå skutan”, Sigrid takes us down to the quayside to the large, intensely blue ship that has just arrived in harbour and has just set sail at the masts. On the quay, our eyes are caught by the centrally positioned red lorry and some passing figures. Beyond the ship, on the other side of the strait, the walls glow an intense yellow and the houses and warehouses of Södermalm, or Söderlandet as it was then called, loom large. Sigrid uses the masts and pylons to divide the image into sections, a sophisticated way that creates depth and great perspective, despite the intimate format. But perhaps the most important thing for Sigrid is the colour of the ship;
Anders Wahlgren writes in his book ‘Sigrid Hjertén’; ‘not infrequently Sigrid wanted to attach the motif to the canvas at first impression, perhaps precisely to capture a special colour, “just that blue colour”.
Colour was central to Sigrid's work; with a sure touch, she laid out the splashes of colour to great effect, capturing the immediate sight, but also the scent of the environment, the sounds of the harbour, the sludge and the force of the wind in the sails in a masterly manner. In the years that followed until around 1920, Sigrid continued with the dynamic and expressive painting that is now her trademark. A few years later, the Grünewald/Hjertén couple moved across Slussen to Katarinavägen, above Stadsgården, to a larger studio with a breathtaking view of the city as their main source of inspiration.
Artist friend Carl Palme wrote in a review of the exhibition;
‘It is from their studios high above Stadsgården that these painters sit and look obliquely at the beautiful Stockholm. The oblique drawings apparently play a major role in these painters' dogmatism, they probably serve a great artistic purpose, but otherwise these paintings seem to me to have very great merits in the use of colour.’
Sigrid decides to take ‘Den blå skutan” with her when the invitation comes from Herwarth Walden in Berlin, who wants her and Isaac to exhibit at his gallery ‘Der Sturm’ in 1915. Together with her husband Isaac Grünewald and their Swedish artist friends Gösta Adrian-Nilsson, Einar Jolin and Edvard Hald, they participated in the ‘Schwedische Expressionisten’, which was a great experience and success for Sigrid. In 1918 she was invited to exhibit at Liljevalchs konsthall in Stockholm at the ‘Expressionistutställning’, once again she chose to bring ‘Den blå skutan”. In November of the same year, 1918, Sigrid is given the opportunity for a solo exhibition in Gothenburg at the gallery ‘Ny Konst’, a new gallery specialising in modern art. She is praised and invited to tea at the home of Charlotte Mannheimer and her husband Otto, who have a large and modern art collection with several works by Isaac and Sigrid. Charlotte Mannheimer helps Sigrid to sell her painting ‘Hamnbild’ to the museum Göteborgskonstmuseum for four thousand kronor and brokers several works to important collectors in Gothenburg. It is possible that ‘Den blå skutan” was one of the works at the ‘Ny Konst’ gallery in Gothenburg. In May 1919, the painting was included in Liljevalch's exhibition ‘Stockholm I bild.”