ERIK (ECKE) HEDBERG. "Havreskylar", oil on canvas, signed and dated -48.

63 x 76 cm.
Total dimensions including frame 75.5 x 89 cm.

Erik "Ecke" Hedberg was born on 24 May 1868 at Kungsfors manor. The father was a manager at the mill, which closed down in 1885. Ecke Hedberg's childhood years in Kungsfors were characterized by the nature of the area.

Eventually he was sent to Uppsala to take his matriculation degree and then an education as an architect. Nothing came of this, but Hedberg applied and in 1887 entered the Academy for the Free Arts in Stockholm and remained there until 1891.

In the following years, Ecke devoted himself to so-called genre painting, i.e. depiction of people in his hometown and in the environments he encountered during a number of trips abroad. In addition, he worked as an illustrator in books and magazines, for example in Albert Engström's Strix. In Tallbo's art collection there are some oil paintings from these years, which show that Hedberg was also a very skilled nature painter early on.
Over the years Ecke and Lisa Hedberg had many prominent guests at Tallbo such as representatives of the local utility company, governors and even the future king Gustaf VI Adolf during his eriksgata in the county in 1934. Of course, Tallbo was visited by Ecke's artist friends and hunting companions.
From the end of the 19th century until the second half of the 1940s, Hedberg mainly participated with plein air paintings in many exhibitions with generally positive reviews from the reviewers of the time. In addition to his home country, he was also featured in a number of foreign exhibitions.