Bruno Liljefors

The years around 1890 were significant for Bruno Liljefors. The commissions from important art collectors, such as the French banker Edmond de Rothschild, were numerous, and in 1891 he participated in both the Salon in Paris and the large art and industrial exhibition in Gothenburg. In 1892, he had a notable solo exhibition in Stockholm, and from there, nine works were shipped to a major international exhibition in Munich later that year. In Munich, he received a gold medal, and the exhibition became his major breakthrough in Germany. He writes to Carl Larsson in a letter that the art dealers "are queuing up now to have a say about me."

In "Hav i soluppgång", we see an early example of a theme that would interest Liljefors during the 1890s, namely the depiction of light in the early morning hours and at dusk. These transitions between day and night, where light changes rapidly and creates a dynamic between darkness and light, became central themes in his artistic development. During this period, Liljefors painted a number of pure landscape motifs, such as the one in the auction, which received well-deserved attention in the USA and Germany but was met with more reservation in Sweden. In connection with an exhibition in Stockholm, he wrote acerbically about the Swedish criticism:

"Isn't it just ridiculous that it never leaves them that I am really supposed to paint animals. I have several paintings there, but most are so-called mood pieces. The criticism says not a word about these, you see, but only about the animal paintings. A canvas that I have and which I call 'Forest' - it is a depiction of the gloom and mystique between the trunks, really - a painting that I have poured my whole soul into and which my friends claim is the best I have ever accomplished is not even mentioned by name in the newspapers. A critic who was asked why he said nothing about it replied that he thought it was not appropriate since it was not my genre. Here at home, they understand absolutely nothing."