Tre brev mellan John Bauer och Bonniers om illustrationerna till Nils Holgersson
John Bauer (1882-1918):
Utkast (?) till brev till K. O. Bonnier på Albert Bonniers förlag om illustrationerna till Nils Holgersson. 3 sid. i 8:o, text i bläck, med datering ”Jönköping 16 okt 1906” och undertecknad med hela namnet, ”John Bauer”.
Att det rör sig om en kladd framgår dels av den ganska slarviga handstilen, dels av att Bauer även skrivit en helt annan hälsning på samma papper, ”Hej Pelle. I morgon kommer jag med min fästmö”. Dateringen avser troligen i själva verket detta meddelande, eftersom brevet till Bonnier hänvisar till ”mitt bref af den 17 den[nes]”.
I meddelandet till Bonniers skriver John Bauer att det föreslagna arvodet för illustrationerna till Nils Holgerssons underbara resa (1906) av Selma Lagerlöf är för lågt. Bauer förhandlar genom att säga att han avvisat enklare och mera lönsamma uppdrag för detta, och föreslår dubbla summan.
Tillsammans med två brev till John Bauer från Karl Otto Bonnier resp. Albert Bonnier på förlagets brevpapper, daterade 8 resp. 23 oktober 1906. Man återsänder Bauers skisser så att han snabbt ska kunna färdigställa de 2 bilderna till bokens förestående tryckning, övriga illustrationer blir fotografier. Man accepterar även motvilligt Bauers arvode på 600 kronor.
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Inköpta på Antikvariat Carl Hellmor, Göteborg, 1983
John Bauer was born in 1882 and was a Swedish artist, primarily renowned for his paintings and illustrations in the early editions of the fairy tale collection "Bland tomtar och troll”. Thanks to his magical illustrations of princesses, trolls, and giants, Bauer has significantly influenced our perception of creatures and mythical figures in traditional Swedish stories and Nordic folklore.
Bauer grew up in Jönköping, and a large part of his artistry was inspired by the mystical forests of Småland, where trolls and other beings seemed to emerge from the rocky outcrops. During his years of study, he was fascinated by early German and Italian painting but soon returned to the Swedish fairytale forest. At the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, he met his future wife, Esther Ellqvist, who often posed as a model and served as inspiration for the princess Tuvstarr in Bauer's works.
Most of Bauer's paintings are created using watercolors, although he has also produced some using oil. By the 1910s, thanks to his fairy tale paintings, Bauer was already an established and beloved artist when he chose to conclude his role as a fairy tale illustrator. In his final years, he explored other imaginative expressions that would shape Bauer's last works, such as "The Dancing Nymphs" and "Blue Eva". John Bauer's final significant painting was created for the auditorium at Karlskrona Girls' School in 1917, an oil painting depicting the goddess Freja, with his wife Esther as a model.
The entire Bauer-Ellqvist family died in a boat accident when the steamer Per Brahe sank during an autumn storm on Vättern on November 20, 1918.