Staffan the Stable Boy
Signed HL. Canvas 88 x 115 cm.
Bukowski Auctions, Modern Auction no. 487, cat. no. 140.
Swedish private collection.
Liljevalchs, Stockholm, 1957.
Folke Holmér, "Hilding Linnqvist", SAK, pp. 154-156.
In the late 1940s, Linnqvist worked on a commission for Hjälta kraftverk in Ångermanland. He spent a full two years on the preliminary studies, and he himself describes his thoughts for this part of the painting, which in its entirety depicts summer and winter side by side, as follows: ‘Staffan's song and Staffan himself, who, as if in a vision, is seen with his five colts, which he waters from the farm's watering hole. Together with the old stone church, they want to bring an atmosphere of Christian tradition back to the world of legend.’