Olle Hjortzberg - Bouquet of Meadow Flowers, c. 1950
Regular price 55,717.00 krOlle Hjortzberg (1872–1959) Sweden
Bouquet of Meadow Flowers, c. 1950
signed lower left Olle Hjortzberg
watercolour on paper
unframed 41.5 × 29.5 cm (16.3 × 11.6 in)
framed 58 × 46 cm (22.8 × 18.1 in)
Provenance:
A Swedish private collection.
Essay:
This bouquet, likely executed during the later part of Olle Hjortzberg’s career around 1950, presents a freely arranged bouquet of meadow flowers. The bouquet appears to be dominated by poppy like blooms in shades of yellow, orange, coral and pale white, accompanied by a smaller number of daisy or composite filler flowers.
The watercolor technique is handled with exceptional freedom. Transparent washes are combined with more opaque accents, while portions of untouched paper allow the composition to retain both brightness and air. Hjortzberg avoids excessive detail, instead relying on rhythm, color and gesture to unify the bouquet. The stems and foliage form a dense green structure below, from which the blossoms rise with varying height and direction, creating an elegant asymmetry throughout the sheet.
Olle Hjortzberg occupies a singular position within Swedish art of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Educated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, and later active both as painter and decorative artist, he developed a remarkably broad artistic practice. He worked with mural painting, stained glass, illustration, church decoration, posters and stamp design, while also maintaining an independent production of landscapes, portraits and floral compositions. Among his most celebrated commissions are decorative works for churches and public buildings, as well as the official poster for the Stockholm Olympic Games of 1912.
Hjortzberg repeatedly returned to intimate and personal motifs such as flowers. In his later years especially, floral subjects became increasingly important within his work. These compositions allowed him to explore color and movement with a freedom not always possible in his public commissions. Several late paintings and watercolors featuring bouquets, midsummer flowers and loosely gathered arrangements reveal an artist deeply engaged with the expressive possibilities of floral painting.
What makes the composition especially compelling is its combination of decorative brilliance and emotional immediacy. The flowers do not appear arranged according to academic convention, but rather gathered instinctively, as if freshly brought in from a summer meadow. This gives the work an unaffected warmth that contrasts beautifully with Hjortzberg’s more formal public productions.
Condition report:
The work is in very fine condition. Presented in a newly made gilded frame with museum glass UV92.
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