Important Spring Sale presents Rackstadkolonin | June 10–12
Bukowskis presents six works by three important figures of the Rackstad Colony: Bror Lindh, Björn Ahlgrensson and Fritz Lindström. The works come from a Swedish private collection and include portraits and landscapes, as well as a study for the altarpiece in the Holy Trinity Church in Arvika.
Weekdays 11 AM – 6 PM
Weekends 11 AM – 4 PM
The artists are highly relevant in connection with the Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde exhibition “Rackstadkolonin – Mood Painting, Crafts & Design” (September 2025 – February 2026), in which all six works were shown. In recent years, fascination with the colony has spread internationally across both Europe and the United States.
Lindh, Ahlgrensson and Lindström worked within the circle around the artist couple Gustaf Fjaestad and Maja Fjaestad, who moved in 1898 to the village of Rackstad in Värmland. At that time, the Eriksson Brothers’ Furniture Workshop operated there, whose production during the 1890s had brought it fame. One of the brothers, Christian, built a studio residence in 1896, and when he moved to Stockholm two years later he rented out the studio. It was here that the Fjaestad couple lived when they arrived. The studio became home to several young artists who followed the Fjaestads, and over time an artists’ colony developed, which we now call Rackstadkolonin.
The colony’s artists belonged, in the 1890s, to the new generation of artists and were strongly influenced by the revolutionary Artists’ Association Konstnärsförbundet, founded by the previous generation in the 1880s. Lindh, Ahlgrensson and Lindström all attended the Konstnärsförbundet school and had Carl Larsson as a teacher. Gustaf Fjaestad perhaps had the strongest connection to the association, as he was not only a student but also an assistant to its members. Painting in the Rackstadkolonin was defined by atmospheric landscape painting with strong influences of both Theosophy and Japonism. In addition to painters, many craftspeople were also part of the colony. A central figure was Maja Fjaestad, who worked to strengthen local craftspeople. She helped found the cooperative Arvika Konsthantverk in 1922 to support artists’ sales and make beautiful everyday objects more accessible to the public.
Björn Ahlgrensson, "Studie vid lampsken" (Self-Portrait)
Björn Ahlgrensson created several self-portraits, including the auction's current "Studie vid lampsken" which depicts the artist and his wife in their home in Perserud by Lake Racken. Karin Sidén writes the following about the work in the exhibition catalogue "The Rackstad Colony – Mood Painting, Arts and Crafts & Design": "He portrayed [...] himself placed with a dark expression in an interior of his simple home, with his wife represented in the background as a shadowy figure in the subdued light of the room."
Three years prior, the artist and his wife were still living in Stockholm. One day, they encountered artist Gustaf Fjaestad on Drottninggatan, who is said to have urged them with these words: “Go at once! I have discovered the most wonderful place in the world. Outside Arvika by a lake called Racken. What is Italy compared to that!” This became a turning point for the newlywed couple, whose life situation at that time was fraught with difficulties.
Ahlgrensson had been living in Stockholm since 1890 when he returned to Sweden after spending much of his life in Paris. Through his father, who was himself a recognised decorative painter, Björn secured an apprenticeship in Carl Grabow's workshop. Here he met another apprentice, Fritz Lindström, who would become a close friend and colleague.
Both Ahlgrensson and Lindström then managed to get in touch with the Artists' Association and were accepted as students in its school. Ahlgrensson painted diligently into the night and was constantly engaged in colour experiments. The Artists' Association saw promise in him and offered him a scholarship to go on a study trip to Paris. The trip was not long, but he had time to get to know the artists Ivan Aguéli and Olof Sager-Nelson, who introduced him to synthetism. When he returned to Stockholm, influenced primarily by Karl Nordström, he began to explore Nordic nature mysticism, and his colour palette became darker and more muted. He gained attention from critics and was elected to the Artists' Association, but at the same time, his financial situation was serious.
In 1900, Ahlgrensson married Fritz Lindström's sister Elsa, and their early time together was marked by poverty and a lack of prospects. They did not even have a stable home at that time. It was at this stage that the newlywed couple encountered Gustaf Fjaestad on Drottninggatan. He had settled by Lake Racken outside Arvika in Värmland two years earlier with his wife Maja, and when he now heard about the newlywed couple's difficulties, he offered them to move into the sculptor Christian Eriksson's studio residence, Oppstuhage.
Björn and Elsa took Fjaestad's offer and moved into the studio residence. Once there, Björn began to explore the Värmland landscape with a symbolic and atmospheric visual language. Soon they moved out of the studio residence and instead relocated to Perserud, where he would paint some of his most famous works during the first decade of the 20th century.
Rackstadkolonin at Important Spring Sale
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