Lot 124: EUGENE JANSSON

EUGENE JANSSON SWEDISH 1862 - 1915 AFTONSTÄMNING VID KUSTEN (EVENING MOOD) signed Eugene Jansson lower left oil on canvas 49.5 by 68cm., 19½ by 26¾in.

The family of the artist
Acquired by the previous owner from the above circa 1980 (his sale: Sotheby's, London, 6 June 2001, lot 16)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

The ultimate exponent of the 'blue painting' that dominated Nordic landscape art during the 1890s, Jansson is known primarily for his elegiac noctures of urban Stockholm. The highly evocative idiom of his blå years, however, also gave rise to a series of unique landscapes. Probably painted in Skåne in southern Sweden, the lyrical Aftonstämning numbers among the few major examples remaining in private hands. Of particular note is Jansson's exceptionally dry and sparse application of paint on a rough-weave canvas. This sets off a vibrant, but radically economical, palette to powerful emotive effect.

'Jansson's fascination with shore lights and their reflections, the high horizon and the colour harmonies recall the 1870s nocturnes of James McNeill Whistler, whose work was an important influence on Swedish and Norwegian blue painting. Edvard Munch was also a significant influence on Jansson, and the 1894 retrospective of his work in Stockholm stimulated Jansson's development greatly. Jansson eliminated much detail and absorbed all angularity in the bold, flowing contours that characterise works from the height of his blue period...he creates a topographically accurate view that conveys a nearly hallucinatory mood of beauty and mystery...' (Rosemary Hoffmann, in Northern Lights, Brooklyn, 1982, p. 138).