GOTTFRID KALLSTENIUS. "Sodom".

Oil on canvas 32.8 x 46.5 cm. Signed, dated and titled "Sodom Kallstenius 1908" PROVENANCE The artist's legacy; Auction, Stockholm, Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Art auction, List of Gottfrid Kallstenius' bequeathed collection of his own and other artists' works, March 30, 1944, no. 93 “Sodom. Oil painting. Cloth. Sign. Kallstenius 08. HRS. 33. B. 46 cm.” Auction, Stockholm, Bukowskis, Höstauktionen, 6-9 November 1963 (= 1st day), no. 67 “Sodom. Interior with drinking figures. Sketchy painting. Sign. 08. D. 31.5 x 44 cm.” (850 kroner to Aronowitsch) Auction, Stockholm, Bukowskis, Vårauktionen, 15-18 April 1964 (= 1st day), no. 59 “Sodom. Interior with drinking figures. Sketchy painting. Sign. 08. D. 31.5 x 44 cm.” (600 kroner) EXHIBITIONS Stockholm, Nordiska Bokhandeln, Gottfrid Kallstenius, 21 April-21 May 1922, no. 44 “Sodom. Sketch" Sodom, a legendary ancient city in present-day Israel, became according to Gen. 19:1-29 because of the wickedness of the inhabitants destroyed by "...brimstone and fire, from the Lord, from heaven". The Bible tells of two angels who visit the city to decide whether it must be destroyed. The righteous Lot, Abraham's nephew, receives them in his house, but the men of the town try to enter the house to rape the strangers, and then also Lot. The strangers (angels) strike the men with blindness. Later, Lot is told to leave Sodom with his family and not look back at the city, as it is to be destroyed. When the city is then destroyed, according to the story, Lot's wife looks back at it, and then turns into a pillar of salt. The neighboring city of Gomorrah and surrounding lands were also devastated. From the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the concept of sodomy has arisen, synonymous with "sexual sin", then alluding to the sexual licentiousness that was practiced in the city. Through, among other things, archaeological excavations, the city of Sodom is thought to have been found, and probably also established that the city may have been hit by a meteor and thus destroyed.

Kallstenius worked with motifs from the condemned city on three occasions: first in 1900 with an oil sketch called "Sodom's downfall" (ext. cat, Västervik, Memorial exhibition of Gottfrid Kallstenius, 3 June-13 August 1961, no. 55; 1907 with a larger oil painting depicting the destruction of Sodom (Private property), then the current painting.