Carl Fredrik Hill
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"Nakna träd vid vatten"
Crayon on paper 16.5 x 21 cm.
Provenance
The collection of Mr. Uno Otterstedt Ph.D., Lund, Sweden.
The collection of Mr. C G Lindgren, Stockholm.
The collection of Managing director Jackie Neuman, Stockholm.
Exhibitions
Galleri Färg och Form, Stockholm, "Carl Fredrik Hill (1849-1911). Akvareller, färgkritor och teckningar från sjukdomstiden", April-May 1943, no. 33(?), based on stamp and inscription on the backboard.
More information
I sin bok "Hill tecknar. Pejlingar i C F Hills sjukdomsvärld" från 1988 skriver Nils Lindhagen:
"Ingen har väl som Hill varit fascinerad av 'trädet' i dess otaliga uppenbarelser, och knappast någon har väl som han varierat och utnyttjat dess formrikedom. I sjukdomen kommer givetvis dess symbolbärande betydelse att allt mer betonas".
Lindhagen påtalar hur Hill redan under akademitiden kopierat (sannolikt efter en etsning) Jacob Ruisdaels dramatiska målning "Le Buisson" (Busken) samt att han mycket väl kan ha sett originalet under sina senare flitiga besök på Louvren i Paris. Enligt Lindhagen talar mycket även för att Hill i Louvren sett: "en målning av sin älskade Corot, 'Le Coup de Vent' (Vindstöten), där det ensamma vindpinade trädets motiv renodlas än mer. Senare dyker bilden återigen upp i Hills minne men får nu en helt ny betydelse som uttrycksmedel för hans privata mytologi. Borta är sol och sommar, lövträden förvandlas till mörka kusliga granar, piskade av en evig storm, och allting dränks i vattenmassorna".
I "Nakna träd vid vatten" känns, i sanning, sol och sommar synnerligen avlägsna där de avlövade träden står kala intill den potentiellt hotfulla vattenmassan.
Artist
Carl Fredrik Hill was a Swedish artist born in Lund. Hill is considered one of Sweden's formost landscape painters. His fate and artistry are perhaps the strangest but most interesting in Swedish art history. Born in an academic home in Lund, despite his father's protests, he managed to begin studies at the Art Academy in Stockholm and then traveled to France, where he came in contact with Corot's landscape painting. He found his inspiration in Barbizon and later on the River Oise, in Luc-sur-Mer and Bois-le-Roi. He painted frantically with the hope of being accepted into the Salon de Paris. Already during his student years, he struggled with an incipient mental illness and at the age of 28 he was taken to the mental hospital in Passy. During the hospital stay he began his rich production of drawings and then continued with the production after his return to Lund, where he was cared for by his family for the rest of his life. In thousands drawings, a fantasy world of figures scenes appears. Today, Hill's river landscape and flowering fruit trees from the years in France, together with the visionary drawings from the period of illness in Lund, have received great recognition. His art depicts a loneliness and longing that is easy to get caught up in. He is mainly represented at the Malmö Museum and at the National Museum in Stockholm.
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