Poacher Lying in Wait

Poacher Lying in Wait

1892

Oil on canvas

Mått 25,00 x 35,00 cm Ram 51,50 x 61,00 x 2,50 cm

GKM 2013-67

Bequest of Gustaf Werner (1859–1948) to the City of Gothenburg. Transferred to the Gothenburg Museum of Art in 2013.

From an early age, Bruno Liljefors was a nature lover who spent most of his time in the woods or by the sea. Many of his paintings show hunting scenes for which he often used photographs as an aide-mémoire. In this painting Liljefors depicts a hunter who is about to fire his rifle. The prey is not in the picture; instead, the focus is on the hunter who, at the very moment when he fires his rifle, becomes one with nature. Liljefors’ model for the painting Poacher Lying in Wait was a crofter and poacher called “Värdshusarn” (the Hosteller) who Liljefors learnt to know as a young man. They became friends while roaming the countryside and he appears in several of Liljefors’ paintings from the 1890s. “Värdshusarn”, who spent most of his time in the woods, had an intuitive understanding of nature, which Liljefors valued greatly. It was “Värdshusarn” who brought him to places where the wood grouse uttered its mating call; together they experienced the excitement and the intense listening, waiting for the wood grouse.

Göteborg, Göteborgs konstmuseum, 07/09/2013 - 17/11/2013

Smuk og farlig. Naturen set af Liljefors, red., Nivaagaards Malerisamling, Nivaagaard, 2023., ill. p. 30-31