"Afton vid Skelderviken"
Signed WSD and dated 1906. Oil on canvas 47 x 48 cm.
In "Evening in Skelderviken," Arvid Werner Sundblad depicts the Swedish landscape with his characteristically atmospheric and national romantic style. He began his artistic career with studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts between 1897 and 1902, before settling in France, where he mingled with artists such as Ivar Arosenius. Upon his return, he became part of a group of Uppsala artists who formed a kind of artist colony similar to those that had emerged in France. In 1905, the "Artists' League" was established in Uppsala, which included Sundblad as well as John Bauer and Olof Thunman. The group consisted of young artists from the Academy who shared an interest in nature mysticism and ancient Norse mythology, and they exhibited at Valand in Gothenburg and in Stockholm.