Lot 24: Frederik Carl Erik Törner (Swedish, 1862-1911) Lost in thought

Lost in thought
signed and dated 'C.E.Törner. Dalarö. 86' (lower right); also inscribed on remnants of an old label on the reverse
oil on canvas
147.5 x 203.5cm (58 1/16 x 80 1/8in).

PROVENANCE:
Private collection.

LITERATURE:
Svenskt Konstnärslexikon.

The present picture is an important discovery in the oeuvre of this little known Swedish artist.

Carl Erik Törner was born in 1862. He studied at the Konstakademien (the Royal Academy of Arts) in Stockholm from 1880-1882 and then continued his studies in Germany and Paris. He became a member of the Konstnärsförbundet (a Secessionist movement) and showed at exhibitions organised by the group in the 1880's in Stockholm and Gothenburg. The Konstnärsförbundet was an Artists Association formed in 1886 in opposition to the Royal Academy of Arts. They demanded reforms to the organisation, training and exhibition activities of the Academy.

Two of the group's most important exhibitions, From the banks of the Seine, and The Opponent's Exhibition were described as a breakthrough for French-inspired plein-air painting in Swedish art. Among the members of the Association were Nils Kreuger, Karl Nordstrom, Richard Bergh, I Acke, Per Ekstrom, Gustavus Fjaestad, Eugène Jansson, Ernst Josephson, Björn Ahlgren Johansson, Eva Bonnier, Carl Larsson, Axel Sjöberg, Carl Wilhelmson, Christian Eriksson, Hanna and Georg Pauli.

The present picture was painted at Dalarö in 1886. Dalarö is situated on an archipelago 40 km south east of Stockholm and had been an important harbour and fishing port since the mid-17th century. By the end of the 19th century it was also a popular holiday resort for the Swedish Royal family and the artists, intellectuals and bourgeoisie of Stockholm society.

The present picture shows a young girl, bouquet in hand, in a state of contented contemplation. The obvious reference to her lover in the discarded hat and cane was a device popular at the time and owes something to the influence of Anders Zorn. Törner would have known Zorn; they were both members of the Artist's Association, and we know that Zorn was also in Dalarö (where his wife Emma's parents had a summer residence) in the summer of 1886.

Around 1900, Törner was part of an artist's colony in Åkerö close to Leksand in Darlecarlia. He lived his last years in Motala, by the lake Vättern. Bearing in mind the quality of the present lot, suprisingly little more is known of his life. He is described as an excellent portrait painter, in a realist manner, and numbered the poet Gustaf Fröding among his sitters. As a landscape painter he was akin to Oscar Törnå. The National Museum, Stockholm, has ten drawings by Törner in their permanent collection.