Carl Johansson - Capri at Sunset, 1901

Carl Johansson (1863–1944) Sweden

Capri at Sunset, 1901

signed, inscribed and dated Carl Johansson Capri 1901 lower left
oil on canvas laid on panel
unframed 79 × 58 cm (31.1 × 22.8 in)
framed 95 × 74 cm (37.4 × 29.1 in)

Provenance:
Stockholms Auktionsverk, Stockholm, The Signature Sale, 15 September 2026, lot 210, as Solnedgång vid klippor på Capri.

Exhibition: 
Svenska Konstnärers Förening, Carl Johansson Retrospektiv Utställning 1941, most likely cat. no 39 "Solnedgång, Capri". 

Essay:
Painted on Capri in 1901, this commanding landscape brings together the island’s dramatic terrain and Carl Johansson’s exceptional sensitivity to colour. A great rocky promontory rises above terraced slopes, its shadowed surfaces illuminated by passages of violet, blue and muted rose. Behind the ridge, the setting sun transforms the sky into a luminous field of peach, pale gold and cool blue. The sun itself remains concealed: its presence is conveyed through the radiance surrounding the mountain and the extraordinary richness of the shadows below.

Although closely associated with the landscapes of northern Sweden, Johansson’s artistic formation was international. Born in Härnösand in 1863, he studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm between 1882 and 1885, subsequently continuing his education in Paris during 1891 and 1892. His encounter with French Impressionism encouraged an increasingly luminous palette and a more visibly divided application of colour. His Motif from Montigny-sur-Loing, dated 1892 and now in Nationalmuseum, belongs to this formative French period. By the time of his Italian journey in 1901, these experiences had become integral to his own interpretation of landscape.

In the present painting, Johansson approaches Capri through an unusually forceful vertical composition. Rather than allowing the sea to dominate, he confines it to a narrow opening at the left, where its pale, almost silvery surface provides a quiet counterpoint to the rising land. The eye moves from the densely worked foreground through trees, small buildings and cultivated terraces towards the imposing cliff. Beyond it, a second mountain slope continues upwards and out of the picture, suggesting a landscape extending well beyond the limits of the canvas.

The contrast between warm light and cool shadow is fundamental to the painting’s effect. The shaded mountain is never simply dark. Johansson constructs its surface from blues, violets, russet tones and subdued greens, allowing individual touches of colour to remain distinct. These passages retain the weight and structure of rock while conveying the changing atmosphere of evening. Against them, the warm sky appears especially radiant. Light is expressed not through brightness alone, but through carefully judged relationships between neighbouring colours.

Johansson’s brushwork reinforces this interplay between solidity and movement. Short, interlocking strokes animate the sky, while longer directional touches follow the contours of the hillside and its terraces. Across the cliff face, broken passages of blue and rose suggest fissures and irregular planes without becoming minutely descriptive. The paint remains visibly material throughout. Seen closely, the surface resolves into a mosaic of individual marks; from a distance, these coalesce into a remarkably coherent experience of terrain, vegetation and light.

The foreground is particularly rich. Broad cactus pads, pointed succulent leaves, stones and low plants form an intricate pattern across the lower edge. Their varied shapes establish a distinctly southern environment, but they also perform an essential compositional role, bringing the viewer into immediate contact with the landscape before the eye travels towards the distant sea. Small houses and dividing walls introduce a human scale, their modest geometry set against the immense geological forms above.

The painting demonstrates how Johansson could absorb the lessons of Impressionism without sacrificing a strong architectural conception of landscape. The changing light is transient, but the mountain remains firmly constructed. His attention to atmospheric effects does not dissolve the subject; instead, colour gives the land its substance. This balance between close observation and pictorial organisation lends the work both immediacy and considerable presence.