Esaias Thorén

After answering an advert in the Swedish newspaper Hallandsposten in the early 1920s, Esaias Thorén came into contact with Sven Jonson, and the result was the art association ‘De unga’, where Axel Olson was given the role of teacher. Thorén and Jonson then saved up enough money to start at Wilhelmson's painting school in Stockholm in 1925. Most of all, however, Paris attracted them and in the autumn of 1926 Jonson and Thorén were able to make their trip there. There, the friends stayed at the Hotel Primavera in the artists' quarter around Montparnasse and studied modelling at Maison Watteau, where Otte Sköld was a teacher. Despite their frugality, the travelling money was only enough for four months before it was time to return to Sweden. Before that, however, Jonson and Thorén took part in an exhibition at the Maison Watteau in January 1927. The positive review of the exhibition stated: ‘They do not lack temperament, the technical skill is surprisingly advanced. I think the star of promise shines over both young people...’.
Back in Halmstad without any savings, Esaias and Sven decided to start a combined advertising studio and painting school: ‘An attic was rented and in the spring of 1927 “Modern reklam” was established, in which Axel (Olson) also participated. [...] There was a lot of partying and the humour radiated from the hosts of the place. Lorentzon was now at home in Halmstad and participated in the activities’ (Viveka Bosson,”Halmstadgruppen. Ett kraftfält i svensk 1900-talskonst”, 2009.)
Together with Sven Jonson, Waldemar Lorentzon, Stellan Mörner and the brothers Axel and Erik Olson, the so-called group Halmstadgruppen was formed at the home of their friend Egon Östlund in August 1929. Although the group has generally become a term synonymous with surrealism, it was originally around a plano-geometric and cubist programme that the artists gathered. The auction's “Skål, gren och blad" by Esaias Thorén was executed two years after the Halmstadgruppen was formed, the same year that Thorén and his friend Sven Jonson moved to Stockholm.
At the beginning of the 1930s, Thorén's art was at the crossroads between his plano-geometric expression with influences from Purism and the aesthetics of Surrealism. Thorén later described his creative process: ‘Creation is a succession of different impressions. One minute you don't know what colour and shape the next will bring. I can start by making a red painting - right away it turns green... One day I long for clear painting with clean surfaces - the next day for the fantastic worlds of surrealism, one day I do plan geometry - the next day I long for nature’.