When Haamer fled Estonia during the turmoil of the Second World War, he eventually settled on the Swedish west coast, where fishing communities like Mollösund offered both refuge and a new source of artistic inspiration.

Mollösund, one of Bohuslän’s oldest fishing villages, is defined by its stark light, rocky shores, and deep connection to the sea. For Haamer, whose earlier work in Estonia often depicted coastal life and the struggles of fishermen, this environment felt both familiar and transformed. The North Sea’s harsher climate and the quiet rhythms of Swedish coastal communities introduced a new emotional register into his work—more introspective, yet still grounded in collective experience.

In his paintings from this period, Haamer often portrayed solitary figures, boats, and groups of people bound together by shared labor or silent contemplation. The subdued palette, the tension between isolation and community, and the ever-present horizon line all echo the Bohuslän landscape.