136. HARALD LINDBERG (1901-1976). Götaverk in Gothenburg.

Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm. Signed Harald Lindberg.

The painting depicts in the foreground Stenpiren with archipelago boats and Götaverk on the other side of the river with Ramberget in the background in Gothenburg.

“Harald Lindberg is an impressionist in both perception and expression. He captures with spontaneous brushstroke the sucking power of the rising sea, the sails of the skies as well as that of ships and fishing boats. In his brushstrokes is the power of the one who is used to tending the sea stuff — holding tight against wind but also letting go soft but firm. His palette has the harsh freshness of strong wind and the lyrically warm and flowery, striking out in the shelter of the sheaves. He who is born among the outer cuts has instilled something very substantial through birth and inheritance. It is not the summer guest paradise land of milk and honey but strong and often stingy wind and hard toil for the scarce salvage. Such a life begets no sentimental painting of beauty, but on the other hand it keeps the mind fresh and open to the life of nature.” (Emmy Melin about Harald Lindberg in Svenskt Konstnärslexikon, band III, Allhems förlag, Malmö 1957)

Harald Lindberg, together with Roland Svensson, is regarded as the great archipelagic portraitist of his time in Swedish art. He was born in Björkö-Arholma in 1901. In his childhood home at Rumshamn on Björkö, he sat as a boy and executed watercolour drawings of passing boats, which he then sold to the boats' skipper for a few crowns. Harald's father was a skipper and already at the age of thirteen Harald went to sea himself. After the end of the First World War, he worked as a light sailor on ocean-going ships, and he was able to visit ports on all five continents for a few years. During the conscription period, he studied at the same time at Edward Berggren's school of painting. Then followed studies at the Academy of Fine Arts 1924-29, with Carl Wilhelmson as a teacher of painting and Albert Engström as a teacher of drawing. While studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, he received the Second Medal in 1927. Harald Lindberg also studied at the Maison Watteau in Paris in 1932.

Harald Lindberg made his exhibition debut in 1935 at the Fahlcrantz Art Salon and he then had a long series of solo exhibitions over the years, including in Stockholm in 1939, 1942, 1943 and 1948 and in Gothenburg in 1937 and 1942. In addition, he was represented at exhibitions in the rest of the Nordic countries and in the United States. Harald Lindberg's retrospective exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts in the spring of 1951 was met with a brilliant critique, highlighting the authenticity and originality of his art. In 1978, a memorial exhibition was organized at the Academy of Fine Arts with over 100 paintings.

In her description of Harald Lindberg in the Swedish Artists' Lexikon, Emmy Melin highlights how characteristic of his art is the ability to reproduce life and movement. She further describes how impressionism, expressiveness and monumentality are present in his paintings, and how his realism contains a large fund of fresh natural poetry. Harald Lindberg was also an amazing colorist. In this motto, he was more related to the Gothenburg Kolorists of the west coast than to his fellow artists in Stockholm.

Alongside his easel painting, Harald Lindberg also executed a number of public monumental works, including at the Sjösskolan in Gothenburg and at the Port Authority's former premises at Gärdet in Stockholm. One of his most famous monumental works is the ten-metre-long mural “Juniskäret” in Brantingsskolan in Uppsala, which was saved at the last moment in connection with the demolition of the school in 2018-20 and could then be reopened in the newly built school in 2023.

Harald Lindberg is represented at Nationalmuseum, Moderna Museet, Norrköping Museum of Art and Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde.