Erik Tryggelin - View over Lake Vättern from Vadstena
Regular price 26,462.00 krErik Tryggelin (1878–1962) Sweden
View over Lake Vättern from Vadstena, 29–30 August 1943
signed and dated lower right
oil on canvas laid on masonite
unframed 15 × 20 cm (5.9 × 7.9 in)
framed 25 × 30 cm (9.8 × 11.8 in)
Provenance:
A private collection, Sweden.
Essay:
Executed across two consecutive days, 29 and 30 August 1943, this compact painting demonstrates Tryggelin’s characteristic insistence on direct observation and careful notation of time and place. The motif is reduced to essentials: a low horizon, the broad plane of Vättern, and a monumental cloud formation that dominates the upper field. The cloud mass is built from cool, shifting violets and greys, edged with lighter veils that suggest both volume and movement. Below, the lake is rendered in horizontal strokes that vary in density, allowing subtle passages of blue, green, and purple to shimmer through the surface.
A single point of light glows near the horizon. Read as a distant lighthouse or harbour navigation light, it operates as the painting’s quiet focal device. It punctuates the vastness with a human signal, provides a measure of distance, and stabilises the composition by fixing the viewer’s gaze at a precise point in the far field. This small accent also intensifies the evening mood, implying a transition from daylight to dusk without relying on overt narrative.
Tryggelin worked as a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and photographer, and his art is closely associated with city life and twilight atmospheres, often framed as attentive records of lived experience. Alongside Stockholm subjects, he repeatedly returned to places such as Visby and Vadstena. Vadstena’s setting on Vättern’s eastern shore offers long sight lines and a pronounced sense of open weather, conditions that encourage a painterly focus on cloud architecture and distant light.
Condition report:
The work is in very fine condition with clear, fresh colour and a stable surface. Recently cleaned. Small pinholes are present at the corners, original to the artist’s display practice of mounting small works with thumbtacks; repeated hanging has resulted in more than one hole at some corners.
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