45. NILS ANDERSSON. Portrait of Anders Peter Hoffstedh (1806-1848) and his wife Amalia Lovisa, née Alklöf (1819-1895), both signed and dated "N. Andersson 1842". Oil on canvas 33.7 x 29.1 cm., respectively 33.2 x 28.2 cm.

Nils Andersson 1817-1865 Portrait of Anders Peter Hoffstedh (1806-1848) and his wife Amalia Lovisa, née Alklöf (1819-1895) Both signed and dated "N. Andersson 1842". Oil on canvas 33.7 x 29.1 cm., respectively 33.2 x 28.2 cm.

Gilded and ornamented original frames Alongside his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts (1840-1850), Nils Andersson sought to earn a living by painting portraits. This side of his artistic activity has so far been overlooked. Andersson is today best known for his depictions of cattle in landscapes. He started painting this motif group in 1851. The earliest known work by Nils Andersson is a pencil portrait in the National Museum dated March 1841, which depicts an anatomy student fellow academic (NMH. ). For the years 1842–53, we know about 10 portraits. The earliest depict a clothing manufacturer J. P. Sangberg (in Norrköping museum) and a manufacturer D. G. Ahlm and his wife (retrospective portrait exhibition in the Academy of Arts in Nov. 1917). Other portraits are the author K. Fr. Ridderstad (Helsingborg Museum's retrospective exhibition in 1912), the chamberlain Pontin (the art academy's exposition in 1850), Ferdinand Fagerlin (see A. Gauffin, "Ferdinand Fagerlin", 1910), Captain Berg (Stockholm University) and the art collector, wholesaler Edvard Cederlund's wife, Matilda Nordblad. There are also two self-portraits from this period, one in the Norrköping museum and one later, in the Nordic museum. To these can be added the auction's two previously unknown portraits. Dated 1842, they form some of Nils Andersson's earliest known portraits. Andersson's great merit is that in his portraits he unadornedly reproduces the simple everyday life of the people. Anders and Amalia Hoffstedh lived in Norrköping. They had two children; a daughter, Anna Amalia, married Arnberg, born in 1844, died in Stockholm in 1920 and a son, Anders Martin, born in Norrköping in 1847, died there two years later.