Olle Olsson-Hagalund

Through his artistic work, Olle Olsson Hagalund has become associated above all with the place where he was born, lived and worked – the Hagalund district of Solna. In his paintings, he wanted to show a different image of Hagalund than the one often portrayed in the newspapers and media of the time, which depicted the area as a shanty town.

At the same time, Olsson did not limit himself to his beloved Hagalund. He regularly ventured into central Stockholm, one of many strollers in the bustling capital. He enjoyed wandering around Djurgården, along Strandvägen and by the city's quays. Discreetly sketching on a piece of paper hidden in the palm of his hand, he prepared the paintings that were later executed in larger formats, in his usual colourful style.

In the painting in this auction, Olle Olsson Hagalund has captured pedestrians hurrying along Hamngatan on a rainy autumn day. To the right in the picture are the bare trees lining the park Kungsträdgården. In the background you can glimpse the silhouette of the Royal Dramatic Theatre. In front of it, a tram turns around Nybroplan. People huddle under their umbrellas as they jostle for space on the pavements.

The scene is gloomy and cold, but as the colourist he was, Olsson has allowed bright touches of yellow, red and blue to dispel the dreary darkness of this November day. The bright yellow warning sign shines like the sun on the traffic island in the middle of the street, and red accents appear in the reflections of the rain-wet asphalt. The viewer's gaze is particularly drawn to the lady under the red umbrella, whose entire figure is coloured red. The result is a snapshot characterised by the pulse and stress of the big city, where the artist masterfully allows small details to take on great significance.

The painting Hamngatan i regn (Hamngatan in the Rain) was exhibited in connection with the artist's first appearance at Konstgalleriet in Gothenburg in 1942. It is mentioned in art critic Professor Sten Karling's review of the exhibition. Olle Olsson Hagalund exhibited around 50 paintings there, most of which were cityscapes filled with atmosphere and life. The motifs from the shanty town in Hagalund did not dominate this time. During the 1940s, Olsson participated in a number of exhibitions, and his big success came in 1945 at the Svensk-Franska gallery in Stockholm.