Nils Dardel

Last updated

Nils Dardel
Nils von Dardel.jpeg
Nils Dardel in Tokyo 1917
Born
Nils Elias Kristofer von Dardel

(1888-10-25)25 October 1888
Died(1943-05-25)25 May 1943 (age 54)
New York City
Nationality Swedish
Alma mater Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
Notable work Den döende dandyn
Style Post-Impressionism
Spouse Thora Dardel

Nils Dardel (full name Nils Elias Kristofer von Dardel, sometimes known as Nils de Dardel) was a 20th-century Swedish Post-Impressionist painter, grandson to famous Swedish painter Fritz von Dardel. [1]

Contents

Biography

John Blund (1927), on display at the Stockholm Public Library. Nils Dardel John Blund.jpg
John Blund (1927), on display at the Stockholm Public Library.

Dardel was born in Bettna, Södermanland, Sweden in 1888. He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm [1] between 1908–1910.[ citation needed ] Some of his most famous paintings are Den döende dandyn, Crime Passionnel, Svarta Diana and John blund.[ citation needed ]

Family life

Nils Dardel was born into the Swedish noble family von Dardel, son of the landowner Fritz August von Dardel and Sofia Matilda Norlin. His grandfather was the Swedish painter Fritz von Dardel, adjutant to the later king Charles XV of Sweden and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm, [2] where Nils later studied between 1908–1920, and of which he eventually became a member in 1934. [3]

Nita Wallenberg 1917.jpg
Portrait of Nita Wallenberg in 1917, when Dardel met her in Japan. [4]

In 1919, he proposed to Nita Wallenberg, but her father, a Swedish diplomat, disapproved of Dardel and the marriage was not to be. This was linked closely to the creation of his work Exekution (Execution), which is said to be symbolic of the rejection. [4]

Nils Dardel married the author Thora Dardel (1899–1995 – née Klinckowström), which marriage lasted between 1921–1934. Together they had a daughter Ingrid von Dardel (1922–1962) who like her father became an artist. Both her sons Henry Unger (born 1945 – father Gustav Unger) and Nils Ekwall (born 1954 – father Lage Ekwall) in turn were also active Swedish artists. [5] [6] [7]

After the marriage to Thora, sometime in the 1930s Nils met Edita Morris (1902–1988, née Toll), a Swedish writer with whom he shared his remaining life. [1] - though she remained married to Ira Victor Morris.

Paris

Dardels 1913 work Begravning i Senlis (Funeral in Senlis) Nils von Dardel - Begravning i Senlis.png
Dardels 1913 work Begravning i Senlis (Funeral in Senlis)

After studying in Sweden he did as many of his contemporaries and traveled to Paris around 1910 (such as Leander Engström, Isaac Grünewald, Einar Jolin, and Sigrid Hjerten who all became students of Henri Matisse). Dardel primarily took inspiration from the Fauvists with their pure palette, the Post-Impressionists, as well as Japanese woodcuts. Dardel also made a brief foray into Cubism, and painted a few cityscapes in the style. [8]

Post-Impressionism

Dardel explored Pointillism, using strong colors together with very clear motifs. Begravning i Senlis (Funeral in Senlis) from 1913 typifies this style and was painted while Dardel was visiting a staying in the medieval town of Senlis. Another early painting was the portrayal German art dealer Alfred Flechtheim. Over the course of Dardel's life, he primarily painted humans, concentrating on portraiture or paintings of groups of people. [8]

Ballets Suédois

Crime passionel - One of Dardel's paintings from the Ballets Suedois era, depicting a violent scene said to be indicative of Dardel's hectic personal life of the era. Nils Dardel - Crime passionnel.png
Crime passionel – One of Dardel's paintings from the Ballets Suédois era, depicting a violent scene said to be indicative of Dardel's hectic personal life of the era.

After living in Paris for three years, Dardel and Rolf de Maré became friends. Maré would later create the Ballets Suédois, which performed in Paris between 1920 and 1925. The friendship benefited Dardel as Maré was able to act as a benefactor for Dardel's art, and the duo is also claimed to have been fruitful for Maré's dance company. [8]

In the early 1920s, Dardel created a number of works based upon stage sets, and these have been likened to sketches of drama or film. Dardel also created the stage sets for Midsummer Wake (music by Hugo Alfvén), and Maison de Fous (a dance drama with compositions by Viking Dahl). Crime passionnel (Crime of Passion) from 1921 is typical of Dardel's paintings from this era. [8]

Travels

Japanska (med rygg mot betraktaren) - Japanese woman (with back towards the viewer), shows influences of Dardels 1917 visit to Japan, including the medium, silk. Nils Dardel - Japanska (med rygg mot betraktaren).png
Japanska (med rygg mot betraktaren)Japanese woman (with back towards the viewer), shows influences of Dardels 1917 visit to Japan, including the medium, silk.

Nils was a prolific traveler, picking up influences and motives from different countries.

Later years

Dardel lived a nomadic life, traveling far and wide without ever really settling down. Many of his portraits are of people and places whom he met along his travels. He was known to be self-destructive. [8]

Not exceptionally appreciated in his lifetime, his breakthrough in Sweden came simultaneously to the breaking out of World War II in Europe, at the time when Liljevalchs konsthall displayed a retrospective of Dardel's life and works. [8]

Legacy

Ekero Church outside Stockholm, where Nils lies buried. Ekero church.jpg
Ekerö Church outside Stockholm, where Nils lies buried.

Nils died in New York City in 1943, [8] and was buried in Ekerö cemetery outside of Stockholm. [9]

His works are on display in a number of museums and galleries including Nationalmuseum, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Malmö konstmuseum, Nasjonalgalleriet and Waldermarsudde. His works Självporträtt (Self-portrait) and Visit hos en excentrisk dam (Visit at an eccentric lady) were featured by the Swedish Postal-works 1988 stamp series Svenska konstnärer i Paris (Swedish artists in Paris).[ citation needed ]

His 1918 work Den döende dandyn (The dying dandy) was sold twice at record prices at Bukowskis in Stockholm; first in 1984 at 3,4 million kronor and again in 1988 for the then termed sensational 13 million kronor. [10] Simultaneously the image took on an iconic role within the 1980s Swedish gay movement. His works came to be analyzed under the budding field of gender-studies, and the ambivalence of the sex of his characters were topic of study. [11]

"Vattenfallet", 1921 - sold in 2012 for a record-breaking 25 million kronor. NILS VON DARDEL, "Vattenfallet".jpg
"Vattenfallet", 1921 – sold in 2012 for a record-breaking 25 million kronor.

Dardel's work Vattenfallet (or the Waterfall) sold for 25 million kronor in 2012 and was to date the most expensive modernist Swedish painting ever sold. The buyer was an undisclosed individual. The record in turn supplanted the earlier record held by the Dying Dandy. [12]

Selected works

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moderna Museet</span> Art museum in Stockholm, Sweden

Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009 the museum opened the Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mari Jungstedt</span> Swedish journalist and writer

Mari Jungstedt is a Swedish journalist and crime fiction author.

Mamma Andersson is a Swedish contemporary artist. She is based in Stockholm and is married to artist Jockum Nordström.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Dahl (artist)</span> Swedish painter, sculptor, and printmaker (1934–2019)

Peter Dahl was a Swedish painter, sculptor, and printmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georg Pauli</span> Swedish painter (1855–1935)

Georg Vilhelm Pauli was a Swedish painter, known primarily for portraits and figures. He was also the author of numerous art-related books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Nordström</span> Swedish painter (1855–1923)

Karl Fredrik Nordström was a Swedish painter who specialized in landscapes. From 1896 to 1920, he was Chairman of the Association of Artists (Konstnärsförbundet).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gottfrid Larsson</span> Swedish sculptor

Gottfrid Larsson was a Swedish sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Svante Kede</span>

SvanteGustav AdolfKede, was a Swedish artist and painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritz von Dardel</span> Swedish artist

Fritz Ludvig von Dardel was a Swedish diarist, illustrator and early comics artist. He was a courtier, and is known for his diary and illustrations depicting the life of the Swedish court in the mid-19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Lönnberg</span> Swedish painter

Ivan Lönnberg was a Swedish modernist painter. In style he was close to the Swedish painters of his generation known as "De Unga" which included Isaac Grünewald and Birger Simonsson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Einar Jolin</span> Swedish artist (1890–1976)

Einar Jolin was a Swedish painter best known for his decorative and slightly naïve Expressionist style. After studying at Konstfack, Stockholm in 1906 and at the Konstnärsförbundets målarskola, Jolin and his friends Isaac Grünewald and Einar Nerman went to Paris for further studies at Henri Matisse's academy from 1908 to 1914.

<i>Portrait of Venny Soldan-Brofeldt</i> 1887 painting by Hanna Pauli

Portrait of Venny Soldan-Brofeldt is an oil painting by Hanna Pauli from 1887.

<i>The Dying Dandy</i> 1918 painting by Nils Dardel

The Dying Dandy is a painting by Nils Dardel, painted in 1918, and today it is part of the collection of Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irène K:son Ullberg</span> Swedish painter (1930–2022)

Harriet Irène Elisabeth K:son Ullberg was a Swedish painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elli Hemberg</span> Swedish artist (1896–1994)

Elin Elisabeth "Elli" Hemberg, was a Swedish abstract painter and sculptor. She is most famous for her architectural sculptures, which often feature three dimensional visuals and elements of dynamic symmetry. Her work is featured in the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, as well as the Museum of Art in Kalmar, among other places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Lagergren</span> Swedish businesswoman (1921–2019)

Nina Viveka Maria Lagergren was a Swedish businesswoman and the half-sister of Raoul Wallenberg, and the leading force to find out what happened to him after his disappearance. She was the founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Academy. She also presented Sommar i P1 in 2014 on Swedish Radio. She was the mother-in-law of Kofi Annan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nita Wallenberg</span>

Ebba Maria Sassnitza Wallenberg, was a Swedish artist known for her romance with Nils von Dardel and as the main motive of several pictures which Dardel painted during the period 1917–1920. Her third given name was inspried by the ferry-line Trelleborg-Sassnitz, of which her father, Gustaf Oscar Wallenberg, had been CEO in the 1890s. He later was the Swedish ambassador to Japan; it was during one of those trips to Japan, in 1917, that his daughter met Dardel at the annual imperial cherry-blossom festival.

Ulla Wiggen is a Swedish painter. Wiggen is known for her paintings that interpret electronic circuitry, integrated circuit dies and schematic diagrams. In the late 1960s she was also known for her figure paintings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mollie Faustman</span> Swedish painter, illustrator, journalist and author

Mollie Faustman was a Swedish painter, illustrator, journalist and author.

Kerstin Abram-Axelsson née Nilsson; was a Swedish artist, debater, and social activist, who primarily expressed herself through various paintings and graphic arts. Her work has been shown in exhibitions throughout Europe, the United States, Mexico, and the Soviet Union.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Nils Dardel – Short biography". Dardel.info. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  2. Blått blod och liljevita händer: en etnologisk studie av aristokratiska kvinnor 1850-1900, Angela Rundquist, Carlsson, 1989, pp. 318-319, 321-322, 382
  3. Nils Dardel: i skuggan av dandyn; [denna publikation åtföljs av en utställning på Mjellby Konstmuseum. Halmstad: Mjellby Konstmuseum. 2012. p. 67. ISBN   9789198035117.
  4. 1 2 Nils Dardel: i skuggan av dandyn; [denna publikation åtföljs av en utställning på Mjellby Konstmuseum. Halmstad: Mjellby Konstmuseum. 2012. p. 16. ISBN   9789198035117.
  5. Henry Ungers biografi Archived 20 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine Henry Unger webbplats. Åtkomst 6 januari 2013.
  6. EKWALL, LAGE E O, direktör, Alstad i Vem är Vem? / Skåne, Halland, Blekinge 1966 / s 205.
  7. Nils Ekwall Officiell webbplats. Åtkomst 6 januari 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Widenheim, Cecilia, ed. (2004). Moderna Museet – The Book (2nd printing ed.). Stockholm: Moderna Museet. Nils von Dardel. ISBN   9789171006967.
  9. Göran Åstrand: Känt och okänt på Stockholms kyrkogårdar (Ordalaget Bokförlag 1998) sid.40 ISBN   91-973128-2-7
  10. "Den döende dandyn under klubban" . Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  11. Nils Dardel: i skuggan av dandyn; [denna publikation åtföljs av en utställning på Mjellby Konstmuseum. Halmstad: Mjellby Konstmuseum. 2012. pp. 7–9. ISBN   9789198035117.
  12. "Rekordpris på tavla av Dardel – DN.SE". Dagens Nyheter. 24 October 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2015.