Einar Nerman studied under Henri Matisse in Paris at "L'académie Matisse" from 1909 to 1910. During his years of study in Paris, Einar Nerman created portraits of friends from his school days.
In the 1920s, Einar Nerman worked as an illustrator for the magazine The Tatler in London, gaining fame for his accurate caricatures of celebrities of the time. After a stint as an illustrator in New York, Einar Nerman established himself as a precise portrait painter in Stockholm. Contemporary Swedish celebrities such as Greta Garbo, Signe Hasso, and "The Little Prince of Haga" (future King Carl XVI Gustav) were among those accurately depicted. In addition, Einar Nerman created illustrations for works by authors such as Selma Lagerlöf and August Blanche.
Einar Nerman is the creator of "Solstickepojken" (The Matchstick Boy), a well-known symbol since the 1930s. It is noteworthy in art history that the originally curly-haired boy was initially a curly-haired girl. The original idea was Nerman's version of the fairy tale character Thumbelina, depicted in the painting at the auction.
However, Einar Nerman felt pressure to quickly present a proposal to the Solstickan Foundation. In the winter of 1936, Nerman painted a modified version of Thumbelina, transforming the curly-haired girl from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale into a boy.
Einar Nerman is represented in institutions such as the Nationalmuseum and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.