Lot 352: Nils Dardel Swedish 1888-1943 , Svarta Diana (Black Diana)

gouache and watercolour over pencil on paper

60 by 100cm., 23½ by 39½in.

Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Nils Dardel , 1955
Stockholm, Moderna Museet; Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Nils Dardel , 1988, no. 159

Karl Asplund, Nils Dardel, vol. II, Stockholm, 1957-58, pp. 71-2, catalogued, discussed and illustrated

Acquired by the family of the present owner before 1955

PROPERTY OF A LADY
Painted in 1929, Dardel's depiction of this exotic and playful stampede of African jungle animals reflected his training in Paris in the 1910s where he was strongly influenced by the bright colours and naive style of both Matisse and the Fauves and the naive jungle scenes of Henri Rousseau (Le Douanier).

An earlier version of the present work executed in 1924 is in the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. In 1930 a tapestry based on the composition of the present work and measuring 243 by 396cm was woven in Elsa Gullberg's studio. Both the tapestry and the earlier version in the Moderna Museet were exhibited in Stockholm to great public acclaim.

Critical opinion however was divided. Some struggled to identify with the subject while others welcomed its vibrant raw energy: 'Luckily there is also the African. With her pagan nudity and exotically twisted positions she allows the artist to take a full-blooded revenge on Nordic sentimentality. His depiction is free from cynicism, but full of reckless honesty and energy.

'The exotic elements which previously were intimately linked to his oddities now seem to promote the growth of previously almost unknown powers. His current development, or transformation, is probably the most interesting phenomenon in Swedish contemporary art. As a good patriot one only wishes to express the wish that he, at least for a while, will enjoy a more intimate artistic relationship with Africa than with Stockholm.' (translated from Tor Hedberg, Dagens Nyheter, 25 September 1930, quoted in Stockholm, Moderna Museet; Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Nils Dardel, 1988, exh. cat., p. 115).

Karl Asplund notes that the rapidly advancing elephant was probably inspired by an episode to which Dardel often referred: 'he once when out walking met three elephants from the Schumann Circus being exercised in the park. They stopped and the elephants all raised one foot and stretched their trunks up in the air. He said: "It was magnificent!"' (Asplund, p. 71).

The present work shows more detailed drawing and increased movement than in the earlier composition. The expressions and agitation of the animals are intensified, further heightened by the elephant crashing out of the picture frame. The single vulture from the first version has been joined by three further birds and the roars from the lion and tiger are more ferocious. The monkeys in the foreground of the composition are borrowed from Dardel's AAterkomsten till ungdomens lekplatser (The return to the playgrounds of their youth) in which the larger monkey tells the young monkey how lucky he is to be born happily into captivity and not to have known freedom.