Birch Grove after Sunset

Birch Grove after Sunset

före 1900

Oil on canvas

Mått 74,00 x 81,00 cm Ram 80,50 x 87,50 x 7,00 cm

GKM 0310

Purchase, 1900

Ester Almqvist came from a family of clergymen in Småland. Even though she lost her father at an early age, she had the opportunity to educate herself, under Carl Larsson at the Valand School of Fine Art in Gothenburg and under Bruno Liljefors and Richard Bergh at Konstnärsförbundets skola (the Artists’ Association School) in Stockholm. Almqvist’s early painting was influenced by National Romanticism. Her career was hampered by the fact that she lived at home, and was unable to travel, until her mother died in 1913, when she was released of her obligation. She became a modernist, with a freer idiom and heightened colours. Almqvist was one of the first Swedish artists who depicted working people, such as fishermen in Blekinge, stevedores in Gothenburg and street-repairers in France. Her body of work comprises oil paintings, watercolours, drawings in Indian ink and charcoal, as well as etchings. The Gothenburg Museum of Art Collections comprise five of her paintings. Björkhage efter solnedgång (Birch Meadow after Sunset) was acquired in 1900 and is believed to be the first 20th-century painting by a woman artist acquired by the Gothenburg Museum of Art. However, the painting is undated. Philippa Nanfeldt 2011

Hannover, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, 2002, no. 1 Köpenhamn, Kunstforeningen, 10/08/2002 - 27/10/2002, no. 1

Anna Lena Lindberg, m fl, Når kvinder fortæller. Kvindelige maleri I Norden 1880-1900, Kunstforeningen, Köpenhamn 2002., no. 1, p. 120, 155, ill. p. 121, fig 80 Kristoffer Arvidsson, Per Dahlström, Björn Fredlund, Anna Hyltze, Philippa Nanfeldt, Isabella Nilsson, Johan Sjöström, Samlingen Göteborgs konstmuseum, red. Kristoffer Arvidsson, Per Dahlström, Anna Hyltze, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg 2014., ill. p. 207