IVAN AGUÉLI 1869-1917 Landscape, Morocco Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 17 x 23.5 cm.
PROVINCE Councilor, Phil. mag., Josef and Sonja Kyhle, Sigtuna, passed on to current owners LITERATURE Art in Swedish homes - paintings and sculptures from 1800 to the present day, part 8, II, Gothenburg 1943, collection no. 749, mentioned and pictured on page 445 Ivan Aguéli was born in Sala but came to spend most of his life abroad. Europe and North Africa attracted the restless traveler. He drew a lot as a child and decided to become an artist during a stay in Gotland in 1889. In the spring of 1890, he traveled to Paris for the first time to study and sought out Émile Bernard there, who taught the theories behind the newfound synthetism. Aguéli stayed in Stockholm for a short time in 1891 but soon returned to Paris where he made a living as a writer while studying religion, oriental languages and oriental art.
A few years later, in 1894, he traveled to Egypt, where Bernard had moved somewhat earlier, and became fascinated by North African culture and Eastern philosophy. He stayed first outside Alexandria and then in Cairo. The city was, according to Aguéli, "necessary in the development of a painter. Cairo or something like that. Because here everything is synthetic, and that's exactly what we, the children of the 19th century, need." During his stay in Egypt in 1898, he converted to Islam and took the name Abdalhādĩ, which means servant of the guide.
The versatile Aguéli only painted during two periods of his life; partly during his youth years 1889-95 and partly between 1911 and 1917 which, due to the tragic train accident, was to be his last. Aguéli's artistry is dominated by landscape paintings where the motifs are taken from North Africa as well as France and Spain. He thus preferred to paint landscapes, and among them rivers and seas are less common features, although there are Gotland coastal views of very early date. Aguéli was at his most intimate in his landscape depictions, said Gunnar Ekelöf, who gave them the following interpretation: "He is perhaps most intimate in the landscapes, they may be as monumental as possible. It seems to me that in them he felt more free from the desire and the simultaneous antipathy that man arouses in him". He lived a large part of his life as a poor bohemian and was strongly influenced by anarchist and theosophical currents.
Even the early works of Aguéli are characterized by a well-thought-out image structure where the denomination dominates the form. He was an emotional person and thinker who intimately connected art and religion. It was only what he considered to be genuine that mattered to him and he constantly sought the music or harmony in existence.
Condition
Oil on paper mounted on canvas.
For further information and condition report, please contact: Ulrica Tillander ulrica.tillander@auktionsverket.se.
IVAN AGUÉLI 1869-1917 Landscape, Morocco Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 17 x 23.5 cm.
PROVINCE Councilor, Phil. mag., Josef and Sonja Kyhle, Sigtuna, passed on to current owners LITERATURE Art in Swedish homes - paintings and sculptures from 1800 to the present day, part 8, II, Gothenburg 1943, collection no. 749, mentioned and pictured on page 445 Ivan Aguéli was born in Sala but came to spend most of his life abroad. Europe and North Africa attracted the restless traveler. He drew a lot as a child and decided to become an artist during a stay in Gotland in 1889. In the spring of 1890, he traveled to Paris for the first time to study and sought out Émile Bernard there, who taught the theories behind the newfound synthetism. Aguéli stayed in Stockholm for a short time in 1891 but soon returned to Paris where he made a living as a writer while studying religion, oriental languages and oriental art.
A few years later, in 1894, he traveled to Egypt, where Bernard had moved somewhat earlier, and became fascinated by North African culture and Eastern philosophy. He stayed first outside Alexandria and then in Cairo. The city was, according to Aguéli, "necessary in the development of a painter. Cairo or something like that. Because here everything is synthetic, and that's exactly what we, the children of the 19th century, need." During his stay in Egypt in 1898, he converted to Islam and took the name Abdalhādĩ, which means servant of the guide.
The versatile Aguéli only painted during two periods of his life; partly during his youth years 1889-95 and partly between 1911 and 1917 which, due to the tragic train accident, was to be his last. Aguéli's artistry is dominated by landscape paintings where the motifs are taken from North Africa as well as France and Spain. He thus preferred to paint landscapes, and among them rivers and seas are less common features, although there are Gotland coastal views of very early date. Aguéli was at his most intimate in his landscape depictions, said Gunnar Ekelöf, who gave them the following interpretation: "He is perhaps most intimate in the landscapes, they may be as monumental as possible. It seems to me that in them he felt more free from the desire and the simultaneous antipathy that man arouses in him". He lived a large part of his life as a poor bohemian and was strongly influenced by anarchist and theosophical currents.
Even the early works of Aguéli are characterized by a well-thought-out image structure where the denomination dominates the form. He was an emotional person and thinker who intimately connected art and religion. It was only what he considered to be genuine that mattered to him and he constantly sought the music or harmony in existence.
Condition
Oil on paper mounted on canvas.
For further information and condition report, please contact: Ulrica Tillander ulrica.tillander@auktionsverket.se.
