STELLAN MÖRNER. "Portrait in the album" (Portrait of Moussia), oil on canvas, signed and dated 1930.

a verso exhibition labels from Galerie Aronowitsch cat. no. 1 1968, National Association for Visual Arts exhibition 111 and Liljevalch's Halmstad group 60 years 1989 cat. no. 111.
Dimensions 81 x 60 cm Stellan Mörner's path into the Halmstad group is different from that of the other members. His young years as an artist are not for long when bordered by "water and bread" as a result of scarce finances. He was born in Örebro in 1896. The upbringing is bourgeois. His childhood home, the Esplunda manor, is a large manor outside Örebro filled with antique furniture, oil paintings and various antiques. Objects that he will later use as attributes in his painting. In 1921 he graduated as a file. B.Sc. in art history. After his studies, he travels to Europe with the aim of deepening his academic career. However, this is put on hold in Paris, where he decides that the artistic path is the right one for him. In 1925 he travels home and is accepted at the Academy of Arts. Here he studies for three years. In 1928, he received a larger assignment. To row this ashore, he takes, on the recommendation of Egon Östlund, the help of Esaias Thorén, who introduces him to the brothers Olson, Lorenz and Sven Jonson.
In August of the following year, the Halmstad Group was formed and on January 31, 1930, they opened the doors to their first exhibition as a group at the Gothenburg Art Gallery.

And it is from this year that the works of the auction were added. It is a vibrant time where abstract post-cubism is in high demand at the same time that surrealism is knocking on the sextet's door. In hindsight, it is the Halmstad Group's most exciting year. But then and there, not everyone understands. Sten Karling reviews the exhibition in Gothenburg with the words: "Under the name Halmstadgruppen, six happy salmon from Halmstad are exhibiting - they wouldn't have done that." But the Halmstad group manages to take the raisin from the various artistic cakes they tasted during their time in Europe and creates a style that leaves its mark on Swedish modernism.

And it is during this period that Stellan Mörner creates some of his best works. Black fence from 1930-31 is both flat and provided with perspective at the same time. The same can be said of the painting The Letter, executed in 1929, the right half of which is a portrait, while the left is largely a plan geometric study. The auction's painting, "Portrait in the album" (Portrait of Moussia), another work of the same type, with two art directions on one and the same canvas.
It is also one of the central works of the Halmstad group and one of the paintings that has been repeatedly depicted in literature.

Provenance: Nordén Auktioner. Scandinavian Art and Antiques, 24 Nov 1992, ill. cat. p. 41.
Then in private collection.

Literature: Holmér, Folke, et al.: Halmstadgruppen, Stockholm 1970, pictured: pl. 190.
Bosson, Viveka, et al.: Halmstad-Berlin-Paris 1920-1930, Halmstad, 1984, illustrated: page 291.
Bosson, Viveka: The Halmstad group A force field in Swedish 20th century art, Halmstad, 2009, illustrated: page 43.