168. AXEL SJÖBERG (1866-1950). Cormorants flying over copper at sunset.

Oil on canvas 46.5 x 60.2 cm. Signed Axel Sjöberg and dated 1897.

With signature on back "Belongs to Mrs. Dr.- - Carl Hansen" and "From Stockholm archipelago" (twice).

PROVENANCE Wife of Dr. Fredrik Carl Christin Hansen (1870-1934), Copenhagen or the wife of botanist Phil. dr. Carl Emil Hansen Ostenfeld (1873-1831), Copenhagen Made at Långviksskär, along with neighboring islets, cobbles and skerries, located in the strip of sea between Möja and Utö, half a mile outside Nämdö where Axel Sjöberg settled in 1896. In the fall of 1884, the American diplomat William Widgery Thomas, Prime Minister in Stockholm in 1884-85, had participated in a hunt for seabirds and seals at Långviksskär. He fell in love with the area and bought a large part of the archipelago that same year. In his book "From castle to hut", 1891-92, he gives a vivid and detailed description of the island and its population, whose main occupation was hunting and fishing. Thomas had a house built on Långviksskär, which Axel Sjöberg rented during his first years on the island (Thomas had made himself extremely popular in Sweden, and he was also held in high esteem among the Scandinavians in the United States, which was especially evident when he was appointed party speaker at the 250th anniversary, which in September 1888, in the presence of over 40,000 Scandinavians, was celebrated in Minneapolis to commemorate the founding of the first Swedish colony on the Delaware River in 1638). Inspired by Thomas's book, Axel Sjöberg published the book "Bland kobbar och skar" in 1900, a description of the archipelago in text and image which came to be of great importance for the interest in the outer archipelago. "The man I was waiting for has thus arrived: the one who could see the only original thing in Sweden's electricity's petty nature: the Eastern Archipelago", writes August Strindberg in a thank-you letter to Sjöberg, who sent him a copy of the book. Sjöberg came to collect many of his motifs from the archipelago, including a. to his covers for several of Strindberg's books.

Individual birds exposed to the forces of the weather is a motif that Axel Sjöberg would regularly return to. Around 1905, he executed a triptych for his friend the wholesaler Per Dahlström in which flying cormorants were flanked by cormorants sitting on rocks. The ensemble is scattered, but some sketches that have survived give us an idea of the artist's intention. The lonely birds have been interpreted as a symbol of the lonely and strong man in his struggle against the mighty forces of nature, but also a symbol of the independent artist who puts the struggle before the idyll and who does not shy away from sacrifice and suffering to realize his vision. Nietzsche's ideas about the power of the will, expressed in his book "Jenseits von Gut und Böse" [Beyond good and evil), did not leave Sjöberg unaffected. They became particularly relevant when he alone took up a two-front battle both with his comrades in the Artists' Union and with the critics who did not understand his new painting (S. Karling, "Axel Sjöberg," 1960, pp. 211-12). In 1904, Sjöberg had been appointed secretary of the association by Karl Nordström, the association's leader, at a time when several artists had left the association, for example Anders Zorn, Carl Larsson, Georg Pauli and Richard Bergh. In 1905, after his resignation, Bergh wrote the book Hvad vår kamp gällt. That cormorants in particular were of great importance to Sjöberg as a symbol of his struggle is evident from the cover of his retrospective exhibition at Liljevalch's art gallery in 1918, which depicts two cormorants based on a model by Sjöberg.

In the 1910s, Axel Sjöberg left Långviksär and settled in the nearby Sandhamn. A statue of him by Carl Eldh made in 1909 is today located outside Sandhamn's inn. In 1983, Thomas' grandson sold Långviksskär and its neighboring archipelago to the Archipelago Foundation. The house that he had built is used today as accommodation for recipients of the Axel Sjöberg scholarship, which is awarded to artists and writers.