Maj Bring

1880–1971.

Artist.

Maj Bring grew up in Uppsala at Sysslomansgatan 8 and later on the Skolgatan. She studied at the Vilhelmssons painting school in Gothenburg and at the Academy of Arts and for Henri Matisse in Paris from 1908 to 1910.

Bring had her own art school in Stockholm and was chairman of the Association Swedish Women Artists between the years 1949–1951. Bring painted landscapes in modernist style and later worked with collages and sequined paintings.

Her autobiography Counter-Clockwise (1986) is in reissue supplemented with a large amount of pictures from her oeuvre. The book depicts her artistry and her time in Paris. The republication has been done by Maj Bring's fund

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

In 2008 several artists were honored to have the streets and parks in Stockholm named after them. Maj Bring is represented among them.

 

Burial site: 0129-2149

Image description: May Bring, 1904. Photo: Retrieved from the book Maj Bring – Motsols. Memoarer och konst. 2007. [The image is cropped]
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Ingrid Årfelt

1923–1999.

Artist, printmaker.

After studying at Edwin Ollers Painting School and Art Academy, Ingrid Årfelt came to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1941.

At the academy, she participated in the teaching of graphic arts and in the division of Sculpture from 1946–1948.

In 1956 Årfelt obtained a scholarship from the Italian state and was staying a period in Rome at the Accademia degli Stanieri.

Årfelt has among other things worked with portraits, figure compositions and landscapes. Her work is performed in woodcuts, Drypoint, aquatint, linoleum and pastel. Årfelt gave in 1962 a set version of the Babylonian Gilgamesh, a work that attracted a lot of attention.

Since 2008, Upplandsmuseet has been home to a wrought-iron work by Ingrid Årfelt from 1963, inspired by the folk life around the old "Rullan" restaurant in Uppsala. The artwork depicts and romanticizes an era that was wiped out by demolition and new construction.

Ingrid Årfelt is represented at several museums, for example the National museum and Stockholm City Museum.

 

Burial site: 0157-0262

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

1887–1978.

Artist.

Ingegerd Beskow went after her studies for Carl Wilhelmsson at Valand Painting School between 1907 and 1909 to Paris, where she became a pupil of Henri Matisse and Maurice Denis.

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

Photography from 1943 at Växjö Gymnasium's 300 anniversary. The picture shows Ingegerd and (probably) Bishop's wife Brilioth on the way into the cathedral. Photo: Yngve Andersson / Culture Park Småland / Småland Museum.

Oil painting on canvas performed by Ingegerd in 1937. The painting depicts the Växjö Cathedral seen from Ingelstadsvägen, with the Karoliner house in front. Photo: The Culture Park Småland / Småland Museum.

Burial site: 0152-0057

Image description: Ingegerd Beskow paints on one of the paintings at the exhibition at Smålands 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 Uppsala's and the plain of the province Uppland own artist, but he was born in southern Vi in Kalmar County.

He began to study music for Ruben Liljefors, but was by Rubens ' brother Bruno encouraged to devote himself to the oil painting that gave him support and help. Widerbäck received his formal education at the Art Academy 1899 and at the Swedish Artist Association's school 1900.

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

Throughout his career he depicted the plain and the city. Widerbäcks art is characterized by the mood of national romanticism and he dedicated his artistry to the plain, the trees and the houses.

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

Just before his death, he donated a large number of sketches, drawings, watercolours and gouaches to the Upplands Art Museum. Gusten Widerbäck is represented at the National Museum, Kalmar, Uppsala University Library and Uppsala Art Society.

Lithography. A view of the landscape – 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 August 1958. Photo: Uppsala-Bild / Upplandsmuseet.

 

Burial site: 0154-0142

Image description: Gusten Widerbäck, Uppsala 1945. Photo: Gunnar Sundgren / UUB [The image is cropped].
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Mathilde Wigert-Österlund

1873–1943.

Artist.

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

Wigert-Österlund's early paintings was characterized by romantic mood pictures to later become more expressive and emotional. A motive circuit that increasingly became characteristic of her later art direction was those of emotional tension embossed church interiors.

Wigert-Österlund painted, among other things, a suite of headstones in Uppsala Cathedral, interior from Rasbo Church and church interior from Bro on Gotland.

Later in life, Mathilde Wigert-Österlund suffered several severe psychiatric disorders and was cared for during periods at Ulleråker Hospital. She also published books and committed herself to improving the conditions of the mentally ill.

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

Female pupils in the Academy of Fine Arts 1897-1898. Mathilde appears at the front standing on his knees. 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-Österlund at the easel about 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 appreciated fairytale poems at the turn of the century.

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

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

He published a series of short stories and poetry collections, but her real literary breakthrough was at the end of the 1890th century with her fairy tales.

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

Helena Nyblom was an active debater in the women's movement and also a cultural writer in magazines, such as Nordic Magazine, new Swedish magazine, Word and image and Idun.

In 1922 the autobiographical work My Memories of life was published.

John Bauer's illustration from 1913, to Helena Nybloms "Bortbytingarna" in "among gnomes and trolls". Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The verse house at Östra Ågatan 65 in Uppsala. The Nyblom family lived in the house from 1864. Photo: Arild Vågen / Wikimedia Commons.

Burial site: 0112-0574

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

1851–1932.

Artist.

After studies at the Craft School and the Academy of Fine Arts, Karin Arosenius travelled to Copenhagen, Rome and then to Paris, where she was present at the same time as the spouses Karin and Carl Larsson.

Karin Arosenius sculpted busts and statuettes with genre motifs such as "Fisherman 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 Exhibition of 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, author.

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

He studied between 1902–1906 at the Academy of Arts and its etching school. Thunman then devoted himself to landscape painting, which, like his lyric poetry, is based on the cultural landscape of Uppland. Thunman painted in an impressionist style, often with dusky tones, but later moved to topographically accurate drawings and ink wash paintings.

He moved in 1928 to a house at Noor's Castle in Knivsta and lived there for life. Often, Thunman went out to the landscape, on foot or by bike, with pen and paper in his hand. He was often dressed in grey wadmal suit with leg lindens, and is as such depicted in a sculpture outside the Särsta Inn in Knivsta.

The lyrics are collected in books such as Pan Spelar (1919), Olandssånger (1927) and Fornbygd och färdvägar (1929). The most famous poem is "Vi gå över dew-spotted mountains" to a tune of uncertain origin, possibly from a Hälsingian melody.

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

At the grave, members of the choir OD sang "Over the forest, over the lake" with lyrics and music by the composer A.F. Lindblad.

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

There is snow over the bird song
And the waterfall sleeps at the Island Bridge.
In the night a prisoner of winter listens
In vain after the tone of spring.

 

Burial site: 0115-0801

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

1911–2000.

Potter.

Mari Simmulson was born in St. Petersburg by Estonian parents and received her sculptor training at the state Art school in Tallinn. In the 1930s she practiced at the Finnish porcelain factory Arabia.

In 1944 Simmulson moved to Sweden and began working together with Wilhelm Kåge at Gustavsberg Porcelain. Mari Simmulson was active at Gustavsberg until 1949 and then returned to Upsala Ekeby where her most remembered production was created.

Characteristic of Simmulsons art are imaginative, colourful and decorative figures, vases and reliefs as well as free sculptural pieces, such as "Balinese", which was quickly sold out and "The Boy on the turtle" that was made for many years.

Simmulson also performed more decorative assignments and several of her works are exhibited at the Uppsala Art Museum.

"Mari Simmulson exhibits a new collection, Presenta AB, Östra Ågatan 39, Uppsala 1959. Photography: Uppsala-Bild / Upplandsmuseet.

A plate performed by Mari Simmulson around 1950. Square with rounded corners and sides. Earthenware with white glaze and decor in pastel colors. Photography: Olle Norling / Upplandsmuseet.

Burial site: 0406-0001 (Memorial grove, 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 Anders and Margareta Liljefors, a gunpowder merchant, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1879 to 1882 and then went to work for 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 Sweden's foremost painters for his nature and animal motifs and renowned internationally. Like Carl Larsson, Liljefors was inspired by Japanese art and created daylight painting according to the principles of naturalism. With the painting "Capercaille Courtship" and "Night Piece", as well as another pair of works, he captured the second class medal at the World Exhibition in Paris 1889.

The prelude to Liljefors archipelago paintings is the morning atmosphere of the sea from 1896 followed by a series of works with sea and bird motifs generally painted in large format: "Eagle-owl by the Sea", "Dormant great black-backed gull", "Chasing diver", "Resting wild geese" and "Eurasian curlews" 1899.

Among Liljefors publications, the memoir volume of The Wilds Kingdom (1934) can be mentioned. Collections of art are available at the National Museum, Gothenburg Art Museum, Thiel 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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