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Spring Rain
Gustaf Fjæstad1929
Nationalmuseum Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden
Gustaf Fjaestad was, above all, a painter of winter, but in this painting he captures rainfall in spring, with melting snow and ice and freshly blossoming anemones. Fjaestad combined his passion for outdoor life with painting. Nearly all his motifs are from the countryside around lake Racken in Värmland, where he moved in 1898 with his wife, the artist Maja Fjaestad.
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Details
- Title: Spring Rain
- Creator: Gustaf Fjæstad
- Creator Lifespan: 1868/1948
- Creator Nationality: Swedish
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Death Place: Arvika
- Creator Birth Place: Stockholm
- Date Created: 1929
- Title in Swedish: Vårregn
- Signature: G Fjaestad 29
- Physical Dimensions: w1265 x h770 cm (without frame)
- Artist Information: Many of the artistic tendencies of the turn of the century converged in the work of Gustaf Fjaestad, but he differed from most artists of his generation in that he did not go abroad for any part of his education. Following a short period at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm from 1891 to 1892, he turned for guidance, rather, to Bruno Liljefors and Carl Larsson, two of the leading figures in Swedish nineteenth century art. In 1897 Fjaestad joined the exodus from the capital to the provinces that was typical of the period, settling near Arvika in Värmland. As a nature lover and top-level competitive cyclist and skater, he soon felt very much at home in the Värmland forests and remained there for the rest of his life. He also gathered other artists around him, including Björn Ahlgrensson, Fritz Lindström and Bror Lind, giving rise to the “Racken Group”. In collaboration with his wife Maja, her two sisters and skilled local craftsmen, Fjaestad developed a wide-ranging and boundary-crossing artistic undertaking that encompassed not only painting, but also textiles, furniture and ironwork. Winter landscapes were his specialty, and the ornamentation of his work in the applied arts is dominated by plant forms that bear the clear imprint of Art Nouveau. Fjaestad’s discovery of the decorative effects of hoar frost and snow lent a new dimension of beauty to the Swedish winter landscape, rapidly popularizing his and resulting in it being widely reproduced.
- Type: Painting
- Rights: Nationalmuseum, Nationalmuseum
- Medium: Oil on panel
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