Crafoord Auktioner Stockholm presents Troll by John Bauer, a suite consisting of ten lithographs. The motifs include Christmas Eve, Humpe, Good evening, sir, said the boy, Here is all that remains of my clothes!, Two Suitors, The Little Princess and the Trolls, The Troll Horse, What a miserable little pale-nose! said the troll, The Princess and the Little Trolls and The Trolls’ Stepdaughter. The lithograph suite was published by Ernst Bauer’s publishing house in Gothenburg.
The Artist
John Bauer was born in 1882 and is one of Sweden’s most influential fairy-tale artists. Through his iconic illustrations for the early editions of Among Gnomes and Trolls, he shaped the visual world of princesses, trolls, giants, and forest beings that today feels fundamental to Nordic folklore.
Growing up in Jönköping, Bauer found early inspiration in the enchanted landscapes of the Småland forests—the moss, boulders, and deep shadows that would permeate his entire artistic output. During his studies in Stockholm, he was influenced by both German and Italian Renaissance art, but soon returned to his own imaginative world. At the Academy of Arts he met Esther Ellqvist, who often served as his model and became a central source of inspiration, not least for figures such as Tuvstarr and Freja.
Bauer worked primarily in watercolor but also created significant oil paintings. In his final years, he explored new subjects, such as the underwater scenes The Dancing Nymphs and Blue Eve. His last major work was a painting of the goddess Freja, completed in 1917 for the girls’ school in Karlskrona, with Esther once again as the model.
The Bauers’ lives came to a tragic end when John, his wife Esther, and their son perished in the sinking of the steamer Per Brahe on Lake Vättern on 20 November 1918.
