Pasture with Birch Trees

Pasture with Birch Trees

Watercolour and pencil on paper

Mått 17,00 x 27,00 cm

T 161/1906

Purchase, 1906

In this watercolour by Anna Gardell-Ericson, birch trees flourish in a paddock. Five black-and-white trunks stand in the foreground, with more deciduous trees behind them. Overhead, a blue sky is partly veiled by light, airy clouds. The ground is dotted with large grey rocks, and in the foreground, we see ferns in blue and green hues. A few houses appear in the distance, together with a flagpole carrying a pennant—subtle signs of human presence. To the right, a fence marks the boundary of the paddock, hinting at the meeting point between nature and human activity. Anna Gardell-Ericson was best known for her landscape paintings. Born in Visby, she showed an early interest in art. She studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm and later in Paris, where she embraced outdoor painting. Her watercolours were highly praised at the Paris Salon. Following a cholera outbreak in France, she returned to Sweden in 1884 and settled in Gothenburg, shifting her focus largely to the Bohuslän archipelago.