279. OLOF THUNMAN 1879-1944. View over lake Hornborga å towards Mösseberg and Vadstogullen at sunset.

Signed Olof Thunman and dated "From Hornborgasjön 1919" on verso. Ink and watercolor on paper 42 x 57 cm.
Original frame.

PROVENIENCE Bukowski Auktioner AB, 5 May 2012.

EXHIBITIONS B. Lundén, Olof Thunman in Västergötland, Västergötland museum, 10 February-29 April 2007. no. 20 "Spring motif [Spring], Hornborgasjön, 1919. Watercolor and charcoal 45 x 50 cm.” LITERATURE N. Ålenius, Olof Thunman's art - List of through the Thunman exhibition at Uppland nation 1-15 Feb. 1942 known works by the artist with an introduction by Nils Ålenius, 1942 N. Sundqvist, in Upplands Fornminnesförenings Yearbook 1944, 1944, p. 159 "IN MEMORIAM. Texts about Rutger Sernander (1866-1944), Olof Thunman (1879-1944), Ivar Rydeberg (1867-1944) and Carl Z Haeggström (1884-1944) Hornborgasjön, located in Västergötland, is Sweden's most famous bird lake. It is also one of the most important bird lakes in Europe. During both spring and autumn, a large variety of migratory bird species pass the lake where they stay to feed. Lake Hornborgasjön is also an important place for nesting. Around 80 different bird species nest in the lake's surroundings. A most spectacular place is when thousands of cranes gather and dance here. Lake Hornberga å, the lake's outlet, is on its western side.

At the turn of the last century, art and literature in Sweden were characterized by nationalism, but also by the idea that Sweden consisted of a series of distinctive provinces defined both by their characteristic landscapes and unique traditions. In literature, this found its perhaps most educational expression in Selma Lagerlöf's "Nils Holgersson's saga", from 1907-07. Inspired by France, where the government had already in the 1870s encouraged artists to reproduce the varied French landscape, Swedish artists set out to discover the meaning and spirit of the Swedish landscape. Karl Nordström, Nils Kreuger and Carl Wilhelmsson worked on the west coast, Gustaf Rydberg in Skåne, the Rackstad group headed by Gustaf Fjaestad was based in Värmland. Bruno Liljefors, August Strindberg and Albert Engström and others, assembled in the Stockholm archipelago, made Per Ekström the barren landscape of Gotland and Gottfrid Kallstenius the forest and desolate archipelago of Småland. Olof Thunman was, although he belonged to a younger generation, no exception to this trend. to depict the characteristics of two landscapes, his homeland Uppland and Västergötland. Thunman did not limit himself to pure landscape painting, but also depicted ancient remains such as runestones, Viking burial grounds and early Christian churches.

Thunman was for a long time primarily connected to the Uppland landscape, which he has depicted both in pictures and in writings. Less well known is his time in Västergötland. Thunman was drawn to this province partly because his wife Carin, née Kuylenstierna, whom he had met at the Academy in Stockholm in 1902 and whom he married in 1916, came from there, but also because of its historical significance for the formation of Sweden as a nation only equaled by his home country Uppland. For a few years, Thunman and his wife lived in Hedensberg not far from lake Hornborga. Together they explored the surrounding landscape on foot or by bicycle. Their interest in the local proximity was part of the growing interest at the time in the unique traditions of the provinces. This developed into Hembygdsföreningar and Turistföreningar being formed. The special area in Västergötland where Thunman lived was one of the first and a tourist association was formed there as early as 1895.

Thunman's period in this landscape was the subject of an exhibition at Västergötland's museum in 2007 (op. cit.). The exhibition included several works by Thunman from Hornborgasjön. In his catalog of the Yhunman exhibition in Uppsala in 1942, Nils Ålenius, op. cit., lists ten works with motifs from Lake Hornborgasjön, watercolors as well as oils, executed between 1916-1922. In 1919, when Thunman painted the work in question, a collection of his poems was published with the collective title "Pan plays". One of the poems "Vernal equinox" takes its inspiration from Hornborgasjön.

Thunman studied at the Royal Academy in Stockholm between 1902-1906. He was a member of a group of artists called Konstnärslaget (Artists' Union), which was formed in Uppsala in 1905, with John Bauer, Arthur Sjögren and Gusten Widerbäck as members. Thunman was also a poet and songwriter. His most famous song "Vi gå över daggstänkta berg", a children's song from 1900, is deeply embodied in Swedish culture. A wanderer's song was written in Flen in Södermanland County in the summer of 1900, a town not far from Eknäs where he lived as a child.