Per Ekström

According to Manne Hofrén, this painting should be dated between 1877 and 1880, i.e., Per Ekström's early period in France. The artist arrived in 1876 and would stay there for an extended period. The environment he depicts in the painting is most likely from the Seine area in the vicinity of Paris. In the focal point, he has painted a woman in period-typical clothing sitting in the grass, engrossed in a book. Hofrén refers to the work as a piece of "paysage intime" and notes unusually strong stylistic similarities with the French master Corot. For Ekström, the depiction of light was central, but we see here how early in his career he also gave significant space to the ground and vegetation in his paintings.