Black grouses
Signed Bruno Liljefors and dated 1920. Canvas 61 x 90 cm.
Provenance
Bukowski Auktioner AB, auction 440, "Internationella Vårauktionen," 22 - 25 April 1988, cat. no 107.
More information
Bruno Liljefors reflects in his art the recurring interest in nature that he and his generation of artists were preoccupied with. In 1882 he completed his academic studies in Sweden and traveled across Denmark to Düsseldorf, where he visited the animal painter C.F. Deiker. On his way back home he visited the artists' colony in Grez-sur-Loing. Artists such as Carl Larsson and Karl Nordström had settled here in the 1880s to explore the new French plein air painting. When the artists returned to Sweden, they took the lessons learned in France with them and began exploring the local countryside.
While many of Liljefors' colleagues depicted the human presence in nature, Liljefors chose to depict the the lives of animals throughout his career. In the present painting from 1920, Bruno Liljefors has skillfully excluded detailed environmental depictions to keep the viewer's focus on the dynamic between the two birds. Here we have the opportunity to observe the artist's superb skill in depicting the eagles.
More about Bruno Liljefors
Bruno Liljefors is the Swedish artist best known for his nature and animal motifs, especially in dramatic situations. Liljefors started with studies at the Academy of Arts in 1879, and continued 1882 in Düsseldorf where the studies revolved around animal painting. The journey then continued to Venice, Rome, Naples, Paris and Grez. Once back in Sweden, he began to draw and paint animals, especially cats and small birds, from the beginning in intimate interaction with nature. He then moved on to broader depictions of wild animals and nature, of seascapes with seabirds and of dramatic scenes of battles between birds. Liljefors is known as our country's foremost animal painter with a large production. Liljefors depicted, in contrast to the "idyllic" animal painting, the animals everyday life with a focus on movement, anatomy and their adaptation to the landscape. This is where the greatness of his painting lies, in the ability to show the animals in their proper environment. He has achieved this by hunting and observing. Well-known works of art are the paintings "Rävfamilj" (1886) and "Havsörnar" (1897), as well as the sculpture "Lek" (1930) at Stockholm Stadium. Liljefors is mainly represented at the National Museum, Waldemarsudde and the Thielska gallery in Stockholm.
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