1029. EINAR JOLIN. View of Riddarholmen and the Old Town from Södermalm.

Oil on canvas, 100 x 200 cm, including frame 109 x 209 cm. Signed and dated JOLIN 1963.

PROVENANCE
Swedish private collection.

It is a quiet day in Stockholm — the air is dousing with light but harbors a silence that only cities at rest can bear. From the heights of Södermalm the view spreads out: the mirror-shiny waters of Riddarfjärden divide the picture surface in two, while the pastel-coloured facades of the Old Town and tall church towers rise in the background. The narrow spire of Riddarholmskyrkan, the powerful tower of Storkyrkan and the elegant green tip of Tyska kyrkan all point to the pale summer sky. On the rocks in the foreground stands a lone laughing gull gazing out over the water — as much viewer as subject. Two boats break the tranquility of the bay: a small white passenger boat at the quay and further out a larger steamer with a Swedish flag fluttering. Over it all rests a shimmer of sedate nostalgia.

Einar Jolin had a lifelong love for Stockholm, and few artists have managed to capture the city's soul with the same care and integrity. Throughout his artistic career, he returned to his beloved Stockholm motifs — especially the views from Södermalm — and gave them a distinctive treatment where reality is mixed with idealization.

Jolin was educated at Konstnärsförbundets skola, but was equally shaped by his years in Paris during the 1910s, where he took impressions of both Orientalism and contemporary modernism. His style is characterized by a refined and personal expression: the lines are clean, the color scale muted but distinct, and the forms have a slight naivistic simplicity that reinforces the poetic in the motifs.

In this 1963 painting he shows his full maturity as an artist. Paintings of this monumental size — in which Jolin is given the space to fully let his subject unfold in both breadth and stillness — are rare on the open market. The composition is balanced and harmonious, with smooth transitions between foreground and background. The windswept silhouettes of the trees and the rounded cliffs are reminiscent of Japanese woodcuts, while the architecture is rendered with a sheaf and clear precision. The pulse of the city is palpable but dimmed — a few small red cars glimpse along the quayside, but everything seems to move at a slower pace.

This work is more than a city view - it's a state of mind. Jolin paints not just what he sees, but what he feels about the place. In the encounter between nature, city and light, he manages to capture something eternal: an image of Stockholm that is both real and dreamed.