Selfportrait
Ivar Arosenius1906
Nationalmuseum Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden
The Swedish turn-of-the-century painter Ivar Arosenis had a great liking for depicting his own features. He was also an inveterate storyteller, and he constantly recurs, more or less disguised, in the series of fairytales and separate pictorial narratives which constitute the greater part of his artistic output.
Gravely and intensly he eyes us in this painting from 1906. The melancholy character of the portrait echoes against the background landscape of the Nordic summer night and the almost deathly pallor of the face contrasts with the bright, blue-eyed gaze and the unpretentious Midsummer flower of the floral garland.
Arosenius was the centre of the mythical pictorial world with which he surrounded himself, portraying himself as the perpetual bohemian, true to the ideals of the turn of the century, and at the same time as a potential victim of his ever-imminent haemophilia. The wreath in the painting, formely kept as a token in the family, is now also in Nationalmuseum.
- Title: Selfportrait
- Creator: Ivar Arosenius
- Creator Lifespan: 1878/1909
- Creator Nationality: Swedish
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Death Place: Älvängen
- Creator Birth Place: Göteborg
- Date Created: 1906
- Title in Swedish: Självporträtt
- Signature: .I A 06.
- Physical Dimensions: w160 x h315 cm (without frame)
- Artist Information: Ivar Arosenius was a Swedish artist and picture book author. Arosenius was a master of the watercolour and the miniature format. His artworks usually tell a story and often relates to his own life. Arosenius’ marriage and the birth of his daughter Lillan in 1906 marked a turning point in his Bohemian lifestyle. His home became his most common motif, and he made his daughter the main character in the well-known picture book Kattresan and many other works that a Swedish audience would be familiar with. Arosenius studied at the Valand School of Fine Art in Gothenburg in 1897–1898. He also lived in Stockholm for a few years, studying first at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts and then at a school set up by the Swedish Artists’ Association. In the spring of 1901 he returned to his studies at Valand. Arosenius set out on a European art tour in 1903 that took in such locations as Munich and Paris. In spring 1905, he took part in an exhibition at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris and in that same year he returned to Sweden. During 1906 and 1907, Arosenius was a contributing illustrator to the comic papers Strix and Söndags-Nisse. Arosenius died at his home in 1909 due to haemophilia-related complications.
- Type: Watercolour and gouache
- Rights: Nationalmuseum, Nationalmuseum
- Medium: Watercolor and gouace
Get the app
Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more
