Nils von Dardel

"While Dardel's imaginative canvases often perplex due to the double-edged nature of their motifs, his portraits, particularly of children, appear so much clearer and deeply human. There is nothing eccentric or difficult to decipher here; the pencil conjures the children just as they are in reality. And it is done with the tender care that a child-loving man must feel for the helplessness and unclouded souls of the little models. Here, some of the artist's finest qualities come to the fore: warmth, empathy, and the light touch that gives the images an ethereal, fairy-like quality." (Prince Wilhelm in the foreword to Barn i Blyerts, Bonniers, 1947)

These words resonate well with the auction's painting "Leap frog" from 1930. The four children are young, beautiful, and full of life. The little boy leaps effortlessly over his seated companion. The two slightly older girls stand leaning against one another, observing the play. The boys are incorporated in a triangular formation where the passive girls on the right side of the picture are balanced by the energetic little dog, barking wildly as it follows the jump in the left corner of the canvas. In this child portrait, Dardel did not work in pencil but executed it in oil, applied in remarkably thick layers. The colours are bright and intense, evoking a slightly unreal, dreamlike feeling.

The painting "Leap frog" was originally in the possession of Helfrid Kempe (1885 – 1975). Dardel was often a guest of the couple Carl and Helfrid Kempe at Ekolsund, and he also visited the family's summer house Granudden outside Härnösand. In 1927, Dardel painted a portrait of Helfrid Kempe, and they remained close friends. He also sketched her in pencil in 1929 and created a large oil portrait in 1936. Dardel became the family's portraitist, and there are several well-known portraits of the five children.

The life-affirming painting "Leap frog" has been lent by Helfrid Kempe to a number of major exhibitions. The catalogue for the Liljevalchs exhibition "Nils Dardel," 1939, includes the current work as well as three drawings of the Kempe children: Hans, Maj, and Margareta and Maj.