180. AKKE KUMLIEN. "Canal in Venice", oil on canvas, 83 x 100 cm.

AKKE KUMLIEN 1884-1949 "Canal in Venice" Missing signature. Oil on canvas, 83 x 100 cm.

Akke Kumlien (1884–1949) was a man of many talents. As a self-taught visual artist, he made his debut in 1923 at the Swedish-French art gallery in Stockholm, which was followed by good reviews. Despite this, he rarely exhibited his art but was an active artist and also, in his other pursuits, engaged in artistic production and development.
Throughout his career as an artist, Kumlien maintained a traditional and low-key value painting. Motif choice and technique were inspired by the Impressionists, as well as by their predecessor Edouard Manet's more muted color scale. Kumlien found his motifs both in the city and the countryside. In the cityscapes, the ongoing life of the street and the park is depicted through momentary observations, and in his production of landscape studies there is both verdant vegetation and archipelago. Common to landscape painting is the quiet atmosphere, with its almost poetic beauty. Kumlien also painted many portraits, where the environment is often the private sphere of the home. The person depicted is then often caught in a moment of reflection, or engaged in some quiet activity.
Parallel to his career as a visual artist, he was since 1916 an artistic advisor and graphic designer at the publishing house Norstedt & Söner. From 1924 he was a teacher at the Royal Academy of Arts, and in 1935 became director of the Institute for Materials Science. In 1946 he became the curator of the Thielska gallery, which meant that Djurgården is often depicted in his late landscape paintings.