The painting by Gerhard Nordström presented in this auction radiates an atmosphere and a love of the South Sweden landscape. The artist succeeds in beautifully capturing the magical moment when day turns into evening. The sky is a spectacle, with warm, golden streaks of yellow and orange breaking through the blue-violet masses of cloud and creating a striking contrast. The impressionistic brushstrokes lend the painting energy and movement. One can almost feel the wind sweeping through the clouds and rustling the foliage. The powerful silhouette of the tree on the left is perfectly balanced by the expansive, open horizon, creating a sense of depth that draws the viewer into the image. Despite the dramatic sky, a tranquil and poetic melancholy rests over the landscape, contributing to a sense of calm and harmony. The vigorous brushwork, with visible brushstrokes and dabs of paint, indicates the abstract impressionism that Gerhard Nordström encountered during his travels in France.

The journeys to France and Giverny in 1990–1991 proved particularly significant for Gerhard Nordström. At this time, he also produced Giverny-inspired paintings on commission for Lund University Hospital in 1991.

“Seductive painting, a part of its time. The paintings took shape over three months in Maglehem in eastern Scania, where the artist spent the summer with his family. The pleasurable task of capturing greenery in all its colours and forms could not erase the images of war and its victims that filled the newspapers. They forced their way in and eventually took physical form in the tall grass and in the shadows beneath the trees.”

From a review in Svenska Dagbladet, SvD Kultur, 2012

“Few can capture ever-changing nature like Gerhard Nordström. The tones are attuned to the seasons, the weather and the rhythm of the day. Although he has recently turned ninety, he still paints as if it were the first time he had truly seen. The experience is of course there, but his attentiveness remains undiminished. It does not matter that many of the motifs are familiar. His gaze is just as sharp, and the brush has the same determination to render the roughness of bark and the midsummer greenery of the foliage.

Above all, it is the almost exuberant joy of painting that makes the difference. Although he is a master at evoking the presence of a place, he never fully completes the illusion. At close range, the oil paint takes over, creamy and rich or knobbly and coarse. Always saturated with pigment and lustre.

The feeling is somewhat reminiscent of standing before a painting by an artist such as Claude Monet and seeing, in person, what he achieved beyond the picturesque reproductions on postcards. Up close to the canvas—whether it depicts the water lilies of Giverny in France or Lake Häckeberga in Scania—the forms dissolve into a contrasting interplay of brushstrokes and nuances.”

From a review in Ystads Allehanda, 2015