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. 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. Died in a plane crash in 1946.
"A painting to be 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 in 1937 with his second wife Märta Grundell. In the so-called Grünewald villa, a stone's throw from Vår Gård , he came to live until his death.
Isaac Grünewald is perhaps the most influential Swedish modernist.
He studied painting with Matisse himself in Paris, and together with, among others, Nils von Dardel, Einar Jolin and his then-wife Sigrid Hjertén, he took Expressionism and its colorful, wild idiom to Sweden. In 1922 the Grünewald family (which then still consisted of Isaac, Sigrid and son Iván) were on holiday in the beautiful seaside resort of Alassio, located in Liguria in northern Italy.
During the days at the beach, Isaac made a lot of sketches, where both Sigrid and Iván had to act as models. Back in Sweden, the sketches were the basis for a series of paintings and graphic sheets with motifs from Alassio's beaches - both the National Museum and the Moderna Museet have such in their collections.
In 1934, the suite "Bathing in Alassio" was added, with 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. Ocher sand and lemon yellow detailing in clothing and accessories are contrasted with crashing turquoise waves crashing onto the shore and the kind of blue shadows cast by the Mediterranean sun.
In the largest painting, Isaac himself is seen on the far right, wearing a swimming cap.
And the boy in the middle, by the bathhouse (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 roar of the sea, feel the sand against your feet, get a craving for an ice cream. "Bathing in Alassio" is a painting to enjoy. You can almost hear the murmur of the bathers and the roar of the sea.
THERESE BOMAN, Author and art writer