Hepaticas

Hepaticas

1939

Oil on canvas

Mått 29,00 x 37,00 cm Ram 44,50 x 53,00 x 8,00 cm

GKM 1925

Bequest of Irène Hedbeck, 1974

Karl Andersson was from the Småland region around Vetlanda and studied at Valand from 1922 to 1925, that is, at the same time as the Gothenburg Colourists. He is counted among them but also studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm and later returned to Småland. Andersson’s colouristic style is more subdued than that of the other Gothenburg Colourists and he favoured delicate still lifes. An example of this is the painting Hepaticas (1939). A few bluebells placed in a glazed porcelain cup with blue decoration are viewed from an oblique angle above. It stands in the centre of the horizontal composition, near the corner of a tabletop. The background is occupied by various patches of colour shifting from grey to blue. The blue colour recurs in the bluebells, the decoration on the cup and in the background, and is contrasted against the table’s warmer light ochre tones. A soft light falls in from the left and the cup casts a dark shadow across the table surface. The background has been divided into rectangular or triangular fields delineated by suggested lines. The light plays across the background in shadows and patterns. In this way, Andersson structures the composition, almost as in an abstract painting, anchoring the motif in the background and relating it to the edges of the painting. Despite its rather subdued tone, the painting is highly colouristic, yet the colour has been used to subtly depict the shifting light in a manner quite typical of Andersson’s gentle and classical colourism. According to witness accounts, in the mid-1920s Andersson was regarded as a role model by many of his peers at Valand; however, due to his more subdued style, aligned with New Objectivity and classical still-life painting, he has come to be seen as less typical of Gothenburg Coloursim and placed on the fringes of that movement. This may also have been influenced by the fact that he left the city at an early stage. Kristoffer Arvidsson

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. 397 Kristoffer Arvidsson, Per Dahlström, Martin Gustavsson, Andrea Kollnitz, Lydia Sandgren, Patrik Steorn, Jeff Werner, Håkan Wettre och Eva Zetterman, Den underbara färgen. Göteborgskolorismen i nytt ljus (Wonderful Colour: Gothenburg Colourism in a New Light), red. Kristoffer Arvidsson, Göteborgs konstmuseum och Appell Förlag, Göteborg/Stockholm, 2023., no. 18, ill. p. 10,202