Carl Wilhelmson, "Berta, konstnärens hustru" (Berta, the artist's wife)
Signed C. Wilhelmson and dated 1902. Canvas 81.5 x 25.5 cm.
Minor loss of paint. Pin holes. Thin canvas with minor creases. Some crazing. Small retouch lower left corner. Scratchmark running diagonally from the face to the hand.
Provenance
The artist's family.
Exhibitions
Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, "Carl Wilhelmson. Retrospektiv utställning", 3 - 25 February 1934, no. 138a (ex. cat); Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, "Christian Eriksson - Carl Wilhelmson", 1955, cat. no. 171.
Literature
Listed in the artist's own catalogue, under year 1902, no 22 (Gifted to Charlotte Kerfstedt).
Axel L. Romdahl, "Carl Wilhelmson", SAK, 1938, listed in the catalogue under year 1902, p. 212, no. 191.
More information
The portrait depicts the artist's wife, Berta (born Kerfstedt), whom Carl Wilhelmson had married the year before. Axel L. Romdahl wrote in his biography from 1938:
"In 1901, a new female figure entered the family circle. On June 24, in Uppsala Cathedral, Carl Wilhelmson was wed to the talented and cheerful young painter Berta Kerfstedt, daughter of Dr. Johannes Kerfstedt, the principal of the Fjellstedt School, and his wife, formerly Nordien."
Based on Romdahl's catalog (in turn based on Wilhelmson's own catalog), the portrait appears to be one of the very first that Wilhelmson executed with his wife as a model, preceded only by a small watercolor (31.5 x 46.5 cm) created in Utterbyn, Värmland earlier in the same summer. "With its unusual 'Japanese' dimensions, the painting demonstrates Wilhelmson's phenomenal skill in composition."
