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Ncken and Strmkarlen

by Ernst Josephson

Swedish Jew, painter and poet

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Josephson family

David Josephson, born in Prenzlau (north of

Berlin) in 1750 moved to Stockholm in 1780

His son Solomon with the spouse Beata turned

their family house in musical salon towards the

1830

Most of their 10 children were into arts

Josephson family gave musicians, painters and

photography pioneers to Stockholm society

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Ernst Josephson (1851-1906)

He belonged to the fourth generation of Josephsons, which

was half assimilated

They still kept Jewish households but some of them

intermarried. Most of them adopted local customs

Ernst s childhood was a tragic one; when he was ten he lost

his father and 7 years later his sister died

He studied painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in

Stockholm from 1867 to 1871

In 1872 he started traveling and from 1874 his most common

place of residence was Paris where he becomes the leader of

Swedish expatriate artists

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Main topics of the presentation

What was the nature and goal of the Artists

Association which Josephson led in Paris

Ncken and Strmkarlenthe painters

obsession with the motif despite the

discouragement from all of the colleagues

How after rejection and mockery Ncken

became the icon of the upcoming movement

and the most prominent Josephsons work

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Josephsons early works

David and Saul, 1878

The journalist Godfrey Renholm 1880.

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Art and activism

Josepshonsarticles in Dagens Nyheter (1884)call for the change in the Royal Academy of Arts

Abandoning of Classical Antiquity as animperative role model, acknowledging Naturalismand Realism

Artists thrown out from the Academy gather andexhibit by themselves in Stockholm 1885

The first exhibition From the bank of the Seine The second one: The Opponents

1886establishment of the Association in Paris

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Socialist commitment

They supported Swedish Social Democrats

The important thing is to win their hearts for

our Red purpose and for a new, healthy art.

Richard Bergh

Democratization of the admission process and

distribution of scholarships at the Academy

Equality between male and female artists

Accessibility to the art market

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Ncken is born

The first poem about the

Sprite from 1871

The first sketch is

following the secondpoem about the Sprite

Made in Rome 1878-79

Loneliness and strangeclimate

Link to the homeland

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Thielska sketch

In 1881 his mother dies

After a few months he

paints another Ncken

Corresponds to the linkbetween the Sprite and

the deceased family

members

This link established in

the first poem (sister)

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Van Gogh sketch

Made in 1883

Given to Vincent Van

Goghs brother Teo

Josephson employsRodins Head of Sorrow

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Large scale Ncken

1882-83 Nationalmuseum version 1884 Gothenburg version

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Ncken becomes Strmkarlen

Painted outside in 1884

Abandoning of the nightsetting and moonlight

Capitulation toNaturalism and plein air

Symbolist detailsgildedviolin and water lilly

Total fiasco at first

Recognition after 10 years

Josephson announced newartistic movement

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The rise of Symbolism

During 1880s new movement is being shaped

Symbolist manifesto in Le Figaro 1886

Artist should convey invisible reality, often through

dreams, visions, unconscious

Emotion and the inner eye against Naturalism

Music as the most sublime art

Biomystical connection with native land,pantheistic views, interest in the occult and mythical

Escapism, decadence, sexual liberation

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Key influences

Arnold Bcklin,Isle of the Dead, 1883

Arnold Bcklin,Silence of the Forest, 1885Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Sweet Country 1882

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World spreading of new style(s)

Mikhail Vrubel,Morning, 1897

Leon Koen,Autumn, 1893-1905

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Water Sprite - from rejection to appreciation

Most of expatriate Swedish painters returned to

Sweden in late 1880s under new influences

They became interested in applying Symbolism to

achieve genuine Nordic art Josephsons Water Sprite became relevant both in

style and in subject

At the solo exhibition of already mentally ill painter,in 1893, Ncken and Strmkarlen praised as the

harbringers of new Swedish art

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Josephsons legacy

Emotional and intuitive approachAbandoning Naturalism

Coloristic freedom, use of gold

Nordic folk tales and mythology

Painting private fantasies and dreams

Carl Larsson, The Daughter of Eve

1888-1894

Richard Bergh, Vision: Motif from Visby, 1894