May Bring

1880-1971.

Artist.

Maj Bring grew up in Uppsala on Sysslomansgatan 8 and later on Skolgatan. She studied at Vilhelmsson's painting school in Gothenburg and at the Academy of Fine Arts and for Henri Matisse in Paris 1908-1910.

Bring herself ran an art school in Söder in Stockholm and was chairman of the Association of Swedish Women Artists between 1949 and 1951. Bring painted landscapes in a modernist style and later worked with collage and sequined paintings.

Her autobiography Motsols (1986) has been reissued with a large number of images from her oeuvre. The book describes Maj Brings' artistic life and her encounters with her contemporaries and her time in Paris. The new edition has been published by Maj Brings Fonds

Works of art by Maj Bring are represented at Moderna Museet, Nationalmuseum, Sahlströmsgården in Torsby, Aguelimuseet in Sala, Per Ekström museum in Mörbylånga and Borås museum.

In 2008, several artists were honored by having streets and parks in Stockholm named after them. In Sköndal, Maj Bring is represented.

 

Burial site: 0129-2149

Image description: Maj Bring, 1904. Photo: Taken from the book Maj Bring - Motsols. Memoirs and Art. 2007The image is cropped].
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Ingrid Årfelt

1923-1999.

Artist, graphic designer.

After studying at Edwin Oller's painting school and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Ingrid Årfelt joined the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1941.

At the Academy of Fine Arts, she participated in the teaching of graphics and in the sculpture department from 1946-1948.

In 1956, Årfelt received a scholarship from the Italian government and spent a period in Rome at the Accademia degli stanieri.

Årfelt has worked with portraits, figure compositions and landscapes. Her works are executed in woodcut, drypoint, aquatint, linocut and pastel. In 1962, Årfelt published a pictorial version of the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, a work that attracted great attention.

Since 2008, Upplandsmuseet has had a forged artwork by Ingrid Årfelt from 1963, inspired by the folk life around the old restaurant "Rullan" in Uppsala. The artwork depicts and romanticizes an era that was obliterated by demolition and new construction.

Ingrid Årfelt is represented at several museums, including the National Museum and the Stockholm City Museum.

 

Burial site: 0157-0262

Image description: Ingrid Årfelt in her studio with one of her "shell-shaped" sculptures. Photo: From private collectionThe image is cropped]
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Ingegerd Beskow

1887-1978.

Artist.

After studying under Carl Wilhelmsson at the Valand School of Painting from 1907 to 1909, Ingegerd Beskow traveled to Paris, where she became a student of Henri Matisse and Maurice Denis.

Beskow was a skilled watercolorist and also painted in oil in a muted, black color. Between 1926 and 1950 she exhibited her art in several major Swedish cities. The motifs were often landscapes, taken from cities such as Stockholm, Uppsala, Växjö and others.

Photo from 1943 at Växjö upper secondary school's 300th anniversary. The picture shows Ingegerd Beskow and (probably) Bishop Brilioth on their way into the cathedral. Photo: Yngve Andersson / Kulturparken Småland / Smålands museum.

Oil painting on canvas by Ingegerd Beskow in 1937. The painting depicts the then Växjö Cathedral seen from Ingelstadsvägen, with Karolinerhuset in front. Photo: Kulturparken Småland / Smålands museum.

Burial site: 0152-0057

Image description: Ingegerd Beskow painting on one of the paintings at an exhibition at Småland Museum in 1944. Photo: Jan Erik Anderbjörk / Kulturparken Småland / Smålands museum. [The image is cropped]
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Gusten Widerbäck

1879-1970.

Artist.

Gusten (Erik Gustaf) Widerbäck is an artist from Uppsala and the Uppland plain, although he was born in Södra Vi in Kalmar County.

He began studying music under Ruben Liljefors, but was encouraged to devote himself to oil painting by Ruben's brother Bruno, who gave him support and help. Widerbäck received his formal training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1899 and at the Artists' Association School in 1900.

After studying art in Stockholm, Widerbäck returned to his childhood town of Uppsala. Widerbäck moved to Årsta, just east of Uppsala, in 1918 and lived there until his death in 1970.

Throughout his 70-year career as an artist, he depicted the plains and the city. Widerbäck's art is characterized by the mood painting of National Romanticism, and he paid lyrical attention to the plains, trees and houses.

Widerbäck spent a lot of time with Olof Thunman and Manne Ihran and had exhibitions in Uppsala, Gävle, Stockholm and Gothenburg.

Shortly before his death, he donated a large number of sketches, drawings, watercolors and gouaches to Upplands konstmuseum. Gusten Widerbäck is represented at the National Museum, in Kalmar, Uppsala University Library and Uppsala Art Association.

Lithograph. Landscape view - Uppsala from the south with Uppsala Castle and Uppsala Cathedral in the background. Gusten Widerbäck 1922, photo: Olle Norling / Upplandsmuseet.

Gusten Widerbäck at work in Uppsala in August 1958. Photo: Uppsala-Bild / Upplandsmuseet.

 

Burial site: 0154-0142

Image description: Gusten Widerbäck, Uppsala 1945. Photo: Gunnar Sundgren / UUBThe image is cropped]
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Mathilde Wigert

1873-1943.

Artist.

Mathilde Wigert studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts 1896-1902 and studied in Paris 1903-1904. During her studies she met her husband, the artist Johan Österlund, and the couple moved to Uppsala in 1908.

Wigert early paintings were characterized by national romantic moods and later became more expressive and emotional. One group of motifs that increasingly characterized her later art was the church interiors, which were characterized by emotional tension.

Wigert painted, among other things, a suite of tombstones in Uppsala Cathedral, interiors from Rasbo Church and church interiors from Bro on Gotland.

Over the years, Mathilde Wigert suffered from serious mental health problems and was periodically hospitalized at Ulleråker Hospital. She also published books and became involved in improving the conditions of the mentally ill.

Mathilde Wigert at the easel. John Österlund and Lilly Wigert at the parasol. The picture was taken around 1905, Vaxholm. Photo: Unknown photographer / UUB. Provenance: Christina Backman.

Female students at the Academy of Fine Arts 1897-1898. Mathilde is seen standing on her knees at the front. The others in the photograph are T. Wrede, S. Sonntag, Eva Befve, K. Hult, G. Palm, Kjellberg and L. Lindberg. In the background a male artist model. Photo: Unknown photographer / UUB. Provenance: Christina Backman.

 

Burial site: 0113-0742

Image description: Mathilde Wigert at her easel ca 1900. Photo: Unknown photographer / UUB. Provenance: Christina Backman. [The image is cropped]
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Helena Nyblom

1843-1926.

Author.

Helena Nyblom was one of the most prolific and popular fairy tale poets at the turn of the century.

She was born in Copenhagen in 1843, the daughter of Jørgen Roed and Emilia Amanda Kruse. Her father was a painter and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and her mother had an interest in ancient art and literature. Helena Nyblom thus grew up in a home characterized by intellectuality and aesthetics.

She met her future husband in Rome and they moved to Uppsala, where their home soon became a gathering place for artistically minded people from all over the Nordic region.

Nyblom published a number of short stories and poetry collections, but her real literary breakthrough came in the late 1890s with her fairy tales.

Nyblom converted to Catholicism in 1895, which was both noticed and criticized in the media.

Helena Nyblom was an active debater in the women's movement and also a cultural writer for magazines such as Nordisk tidskrift, Ny svensk tidskrift, Ord och bild and Idun.

In 1922, the autobiographical work Mina levnadsminnen was published.

John Bauer's illustration from 1913, for Helena Nyblom's "The changelings" in "Among gnomes and trolls". Photo: Wikimedia commons.

Vershuset on Östra Ågatan 65 in Uppsala. The Nyblom family lived in the house from 1864 onwards. Photo: Arild Vågen / Wikimedia commons.

Burial site: 0112-0574

Image description: Helena Nyblom, Stockholm ca 1870- ca 1880. Waldemar Dahllöf / UUBThe image is cropped]
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Karin Arosenius

1851-1932.

Artist.

After studying at Slöjdskolan and Konstakademin, Karin Arosenius traveled to Copenhagen, Rome and then to Paris, where she stayed at the same time as her husband Karin and Carl Larsson.

Karin Arosenius sculpted busts and statuettes with genre motifs such as "Fisherman's boy, who fell asleep from his fishing rod" in 1881 and "Bathing girl" in 1883, among others.

She exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1885, 1886 and 1888 and at the World's Fair in 1889.

 

Burial site: 0127-1204

Image description: Karin Arosenius, 1901. Photo: Unknown photographer, Swedish Portrait Gallery / Wikimedia Commons. [The image is cropped]
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Olof Thunman

1879-1944.

Artist, writer.

Olof Thunman was born in the Imperfectum student house on Västra Ågatan, where the St. Lars Catholic parish is now located.

He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and its etching school between 1902 and 1906. Thereafter, Thunman devoted himself to landscape painting, which, like his poetry, is based on the cultural landscape of Uppland. Thunman painted in an impressionistic style, often with twilight tones, but later switched to topographically precise drawings and washes.

In 1928, he moved to the gatehouse at Noor's castle in Knivsta and lived there for the rest of his life. Thunman often went out into the countryside, on foot or by bicycle, with pen and paper in hand. He often wore a gray wadding suit with leg wraps, and as such is depicted in a sculpture outside Särsta Inn in Knivsta.

The poetry is collected in books such as Pan Spelar (1919), Olandssånger (1927) and Fornbygd och färdvägar (1929). The most famous poem is "Vi gå över daggstänkta berg" to a melody of uncertain origin, possibly from a Hälsingemeelodi.

In October 1944, Olof Thunman died and after the burial ceremony on October 28 in Uppsala Cathedral, the funeral procession went through Odinslund past Carolina, via Övre Slottsgatan into Åsgrändsgrinden. The procession was lined by a crowd of thousands, who with torches honored the deceased.

After the coffin was lowered into the grave, a double quartet from OD sang "Over the forest, over the lake" with text and music by composer A.F. Lindblad.

The following stanza is taken from the poem "Winter Night", Olandssånger, 1927.

There is snow over Fågelsången
And the case sleeps at the Iceland Bridge.
In the night, a winter prisoner listens
In vain for a spring tone.

 

Burial site: 0115-0801

Image description: Olof Thunman ca 1940. Photo: Gunnar Sundgren / UUBThe image is cropped]
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Mari Simmulson

1911-2000.

Ceramist.

Mari Simmulson was born in St. Petersburg to Estonian parents and trained as a sculptor at the Tallinn State Art Academy. In the 1930s she trained at the Finnish porcelain factory Arabia.

In 1944, Simmulson moved to Sweden and began working with Wilhelm Kåge at the Gustavsberg porcelain factory. Mari Simmulson worked at Gustavsberg until 1949 and then returned to Upsala Ekeby where her most remembered production was created.

Characteristic of Simmulson's art are imaginative, colorful and decorative figures, vases and reliefs as well as freely sculptural pieces, such as the "Balinese", which was quickly sold out and the "boy on the turtle", which was produced for many years.

Simmulson also carried out major decorative commissions, and several of her works are exhibited at Uppsala Konstmuseum.

"Mari Simmulson demonstrates the new collection of chamotte ware", Presenta AB, Östra Ågatan 39, Uppsala 1959. Photo: Uppsala-Bild / Upplandsmuseet.

Barrel made by Mari Simmulson around 1950. Square with rounded corners and sides. Earthenware with white bottom glaze and decoration in pastel colors. Photo: Olle Norling / Upplandsmuseet.

Burial site: 0406-0001 (Memorial grove in the Old Cemetery)

Image description: Mari Simmulson, Uppsala 1960. Photo: Uppsala-Bild / Upplandsmuseet. [The image is cropped]
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Bruno Liljefors

1860-1939.

Artist.

Bruno Liljefors, son of the gunpowder dealer Anders and Margareta Liljefors, studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts from 1879 to 1882 and then traveled to the animal painter C. F. Deiker in Düsseldorf and from there to Grez-sur-Loing, where he stayed with Carl Larsson and others in the Swedish artists' colony.

Bruno Liljefors became one of the country's foremost animal painters with an international reputation and is best known for his nature and animal motifs. Like Carl Larsson, Liljefors was inspired by Japanese art and created daylight paintings based on naturalistic principles. With the painting "Tjäderspel" and "Nattstycke", as well as a couple of other works, he won the second class medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889.

The start of Liljefors' archipelago paintings is Morning mood over the sea from 1896, followed by a series of works with sea and bird motifs, usually painted in large format: "Uv vid havet", "Vilande havstrutar", "Jagande lom", "Rastande vildgäss" and "Storspovar" in 1899.

Liljefors' publications include the memoir Det vildas rike (1934). Art collections are held at the National Museum, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, the Thielska Gallery and Uppsala University. Bruno Liljefors' studio in Österbybruk is preserved as a museum.

 

Burial site: 0206-1641

Image description: Bruno Liljefors, unknown year. Photo: Unknown photographer / Wikimedia Commons. [The image is cropped]
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