Apple trees in blossom (Blommande äppelträd)

Details

AUGUST STRINDBERG (STOCKHOLM, 1849-1912)
Apple trees in blossom (Blommande äppelträd)
Painted in 1907.
oil on board
6 7⁄8 x 5 ½ in. (17.5 x 13.7 cm.)

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by Gustaf Hartzell, Norrköping.
Mrs Stina Willner, Stockholm.
Anonymous sale; Bukowskis, Stockholm, 30 October 1990, lot 146, where acquired by the present owner.

Literature

G. Söderström & T. Matten, Strindbergs Maleri, Malmö, 1972, pp. 195, 245, no. 52 pl. 52, illustrated.
B. Magnusson (ed.) Diktaren som bildkonstnär. Goethe-Hugo-Stringberg, Stockholm, 1974, p. 116, illustrated.
G. Hellström & C -G. Peterson, Det stora konstspelet-Hur 80-talets gyllene konstmarknad förvandlades till trauma pa 90-talet, 1992, p. 243.
exh. cat. O. Granath, August Strindberg, Painter, Photographer, Writer, London, 2005, p .106, 155, no. 75, illustrated.

Exhibited

Stockholm, Gummesons Konsthall, Malningar af August Strindberg, 8-31 January 1924, no. 33.
Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Strindberg som malare och modell, 21 January- February 1949, no. 64, this exhibition later travelled to Örebro, Örebro Centralbibliotek, 24 February-March 1949 and Lund, Lunds Universitets Konstmuseum, 20 March-April 1949.
Stockholm, Galleri Observatorioum, August Strindberg-oljemalningar, 10-28 September 1960, no. 24.
Ulm, Kunstverein Ulm in Schwörhaus, August Strindberg. Malereien, 24 March-25 April 1962, this exhibition later travelled to Paris, Musée dArt Moderne,15 May-10 June 1962; Bruges, Provinciaal Hof, 28 July-2 September 1962; London, British Museum, October 1962 and Marburg, Universitätsmuseum, November 1962, no. 29.
Copenhagen, Humlebaek, Louisiana, August Strindberg. Malerier, 7 December 1962-6 January 1963, this exhibition later travelled to Oslo, Oslo Kunstforening, 19 January-10 February 1963, no. 30, Gothenburg, The Art Museum of Gotheburg, 16 February-10 March 1963, Stockholm, Moderna Museet, 15 March-15 April 1963, no. 36.
Lund, Krognoshuset, 1963, no.24.
London, Tate Modern, August Strindberg, Painter, Photographer, Writer, 17 February-15 May 2005, no. 75.
Stockholm, Bukowskis Auktioner, Strindberg at Bukowskis, 2 May-6 May 2012.

Conditions of sale

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Alastair Plumb Senior Specialist, Head of Sale, European Art

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Lot Essay

In Apple trees in blossom Strindberg successfully captures gradations of colour from the light blue summer sky to the darker vegetation under the trees. In between, pinkish white blossoms bring a vibrancy to the palette of the painting.
Söderström writes that in the painting Blommande äppelträd (Apple trees in Blossom) Strindberg probably achieved what he had been striving for in the large canvas Rosendals trädgard (The Garden of Rosendal); but which eluded him in the larger painting.
That he was unhappy about the latter can be noticed in the following anecdote, "When Prins Eugen complimented Strindberg in 1909 on the painting Rosendals trädgard Strindberg apparently answered with a frown: 'Yes, but it was supposed to be appletrees and then it turned out as pine-trees, and it remained that'.
Strindberg connected Apple trees in Blossom to his play Brända tomten (The burned lot) where the blossoms of the apple-trees sprung in to bloom as the old house burned.

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