John Jon-And and Agnes Cleve

John Jon-And (1899-1941) was one of the most influential artists of his time in Sweden. He had contact with the most famous profiles in cultural life during the 1920s and 30s and portrayed many of them. He conducted his studies in Gothenburg and Paris and traveled to Germany, France, Italy, and the United States (where he also lived for some time). He was also an esteemed theater and stage decorator. For Karl Gerhard, among others, Jon-And performed several decorations for theaters in Gothenburg, Dramaten, and Opera in Stockholm.

Agnes Cleve (1876-1951) belonged, as one of a few female artists, to the Swedish avant-garde of the 1910s in Paris. After studying for Carl Wilhelmson at Valand in Gothenburg, Cleve traveled to Paris in 1914, where Le Fauconnier's cubism at the Académie de la Palette became the new artistic guiding star. For Cleve, cubism became a transitional stage which she later combined with more movement-laden expressionism. Cleve married fellow artist John Jon-And in 1915. Both Agnes Cleve and John Jon-And became interested in the German avant-garde and the magazine Der Sturm, in which Kandinsky was a central figure.

The current theme auction contains a selection of works on paper, including costume sketches, model studies, caricatures, and portraits of friends.