CHARLOTTE WAHLSTRÖM. Cliffs and sea.

Oil on canvas, 42 x 69 cm. Signed Charlotte Wahström.

Wahlström was born in 1849 in Svärta Parish outside Nyköping and at the age of 28 went to Stockholm to begin his artistic studies at the Technical School. There it took only a year before she entered the Fruntimmersdepartment at the Academy of Fine Arts. Through her choice of landscape painting as a direction, she met Elisabeth Warling who would become her close friend for life. Landscape would remain Wahlström's primary choice of subject matter and over time the depictions would grow into a vocation. In her long stays in nature, with her eye for its changing hues, expressions and moods, she felt most at home.

Wahlström's painting was already praised during her teaching time through awards and scholarships. Among these should be mentioned the Royal Medal which she was awarded in 1882. The scholarships took her to the destination where her fellow students also looked, to the metropolis of Paris and the surrounding area.

The space for emotional expression and undertones in Swedish mood painting around the turn of the last century suited Wahlström's painting and character, and it was thus in her homeland that her painting would flourish. Wahlström was of an itinerant nature but returned frequently to a number of places, all with their own character.

Wahlström's paintings from the Kulla Peninsula have been particularly highlighted for their nature lyrical character. Many artists of her generation sought out here and met mainly in Arild. In Wahlström's motif from the small town at the foot of the steep coast of Kullaberg, flowering perennial heather heaths take center stage. In the contrast of the colourful moor to the barren, dark silhouette of the mountain, the mood is captivating. From locations further into Skälderviken, she depicted beautiful, still cloud formations and the changing movements of the wave playing. Other coasts she depicted were from Värmdö, Halmstad and Falsterbo.

In our own time, when awareness of nature's beneficial effect on our peace of mind is universal, Charlotte Wahlström's landscape paintings are both seductive and touching. Nordin's descriptions of her poetic gaze and honesty can hardly be surpassed, if only by her own sensual experience of her so immensely beautiful work.

The object is displayed at Nybrogatan 32.