August Strindberg

Exhibited by Åmells

Material Apple Trees in Blossom

Dimensions 17.5 × 13.7 cm

Place of Creation Stockholm

Status Vetted

About the Work

August Strindberg was a self-taught artist who turned to painting as a form of expression in times of crisis in his writing and private life. His hundreds of paintings date to three specific periods; 1872–74, 1892–94 and 1901–05. Like all of Strindberg's paintings that are dated or have been dateable, the work can be seen as an expression of or a commentary on Strindberg's activities and temperament at the time of its creation. During the periods when the pen did not obey his will, the brush was allowed to paint the images that were projected from the lively spiritual life with which he was constantly struggling.

The painting Apple Trees in Blossom, depicting a section of an orchard in bloom, is dated to 1903, a year that falls within the last of the periods when Strindberg translated his creativity into his visual arts practice. Here, Strindberg manages to capture colour shifts from the light blue spring sky to the darker vegetation on the ground beneath the apple trees. In between, pink and white flowers add vibrancy to the painting's palette. In his painting, Strindberg occasionally returned to the same landscape as a motif to apply new interpretations and formats, which explains the creation of Apple Trees in Blossom, which has obvious similarities in composition and colour treatment with Flowering Wall from shortly after 1900 (private collection, formerly at Åmells). It is also possible to relate the present painting to the oil painting Rosendal's Garden II from 1903, now in the Gothenburg Museum of Art’s collection. It is told of when Prince Eugen of Sweden tried to praise the self-critical artist for his painting of the garden at Rosendals Castle and was told by Strindberg that it was intended to depict apple trees but turned into conifers and so it had to be. Another version of the motif with the title Rosendal's garden from the same year is in the collections of Nordiska museet in Stockholm.

Sky and horizon are elements that Strindberg worked with in his series of paintings from the early 20th century. In our painting, which is in the smaller format, the horizon is placed almost in the middle and takes up most of the painted surface. Strindberg is said to have succeeded here in achieving the effect that he had originally sought in his other motifs from Rosendal's garden but was not completely satisfied with. True to his palette knife technique in applying the paint, Strindberg has here created apple blossoms with a dynamic effect.

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Provenance

Provenance
Gustaf Hartzell (1853–1938), Norrköping (directly from the artist 1907);
Mrs Stina Willner (1894–1986), by inheritance 1939);
Private collection;
Bukowskis, Stockholm, Sale 475, 30 Oct 1990, lot 146;
J.E Safra Collection.

Literature

Exhibited
Gummesons Konsthall, Stockholm, Målningar af August Strindberg, 8–31 Jan 1924, cat nr 33;
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Strindberg som målare och modell, 21 Jan – Feb 1949, cat nr 64;
Örebro Centralbibliotek, Örebro, 24 Feb – March 1949; Lunds universitets Konstmuseum, Lund, 20 March¬ – April 1949;
Galleri Observatorium, Stockholm, August Strindberg. Oljemålning, 1960, cat nr 24;
Kunstverein Ulm in Schwörhaus, Ulm, August Strindberg. Malereien, 24 March – 25 April 1962; Musée d,’Art Moderne, Paris, 15 maj -10 juni 1962; Provinciaal Hof, Bruges, 28 July – 2 Sept 1962; British Museum, London, October 1962; Universitätsmuseum, Marburg, November 1962, cat nr 29;
Louisiana, Humlebæk, August Strindberg. Malerier, 7 Dec 1962 – 6 Jan 1963;
Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, 19 jan-10 feb 1963, kat nr 30, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg, 16 Feb – 10 March 1963; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 15 March– 15 April 1963, cat nr 36; Krognoshuset, Lund, 1963, cat nr 24;
Tate Modern, London, August Strindberg, Painter, Photographer, Writer, 17 Feb –15 May 2005, cat nr 75;
Bukowskis, Stockholm, August Strindberg på Bukowskis, 2–6 May 2012.

Literature
Göran Söderström in Torsten Måtte Schmidt (ed), Strindbergs måleri, Malmö 1972, mentioned on p 244f, illustrated in b/w, pl 52;
Börje Magnusson (ed), Diktaren som bildkonstnär: Goethe-Hugo-Strindberg: en konstbok från Nationalmuseum, Stockholm 1974, illustrated in b/w, p 116;
Göran Hellström and Carl-Gustav Petersén, Det stora konstspelet: hur 80-talets gyllene konstmarknad förvandlades till trauma på 90-talet, Stockholm 1992, mentioned on p 243;
Olle Granath, August Strindberg, Painter, Photographer, Writer, Tate Modern, London 2005, mentioned on p 106, illustrated in b/w, p 155, cat nr 75.