From our art collection
Isaac Grünewald was a leading figure in the Swedish modernist movement. He was married to the artist Sigrid Hjertén, and one of those who launched expressionism in Sweden. He died in a plane crash in 1946.
Isaac Grünewald was a leading figure in the Swedish modernist movement. He was married to the artist Sigrid Hjertén, and one of those who launched expressionism in Sweden. He died in a plane crash in 1946.
“A painting to make you happy”
In Vår Gård 's art collection there are a number of local artists represented. One of them is Isaac Grünewald, who moved to Saltsjöbaden He lived in the so-called Grünewaldvillan, a stone's throw from Vår Gård
Isaac Grünewald is perhaps the most influential Swedish modernist. He studied painting with Matisse himself in Paris, and together with Nils von Dardel, Einar Jolin and his then wife Sigrid Hjertén, among others, he brought expressionism and its colorful, wildly expressive language to Sweden.
In 1922, the Grünewald family (which at that time still consisted of Isaac, Sigrid and their son Iván) were on vacation in the beautiful seaside resort of Alassio, located in Liguria in northern Italy. During the days on the beach, Isaac made a number of sketches, where both Sigrid and Iván were models.
Back in Sweden, the sketches formed the basis for a series of paintings and graphic sheets with motifs from the beaches of Alassio – both the National Museum and the Modern Museum have such in their collections.
In 1934, the suite “Badande i Alassio” was added, consisting of a total of seven paintings that all hang at Vår Gård : six of them in the so-called Isaac Hall and one of them – the largest – on the wall outside. The color scale in them is warm and playful. Ochre-colored sand and lemon-yellow details in clothes and accessories contrast with roaring turquoise-blue waves that hit the beach and the type of blue shadows that the Mediterranean sun casts.
In the largest painting, Isaac himself is seen on the far right, wearing a swimming cap. And the boy in the middle, by the bathing hut (where a person in the process of changing can be glimpsed) is Iván. It is a sensual and lively image, where the many diagonals in the composition create movement, together with the children, the animals and the waves. You can almost hear the murmur of the bathers and the sound of the sea, feel the sand against your feet, get a craving for an ice cream. “Bathing in Alassio” is a painting to be delighted by.
You can almost hear the murmur of the bathers and the sound of the sea.
THERESE BOMAN, Author and art writer