THE ART AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF WALTER CRANE

Walter Crane, 1845-1915, was an English artist and book illustrator. Born in London, he was a founding member of both the Art Workers Guild (1884) and the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society (1888) and later was President of the Royal College of Art. Walter was an advocate of new art movements and as his art developed, he became an admirer and proponent of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Crane studied under and was a diligent student of the renowned artist and critic John Ruskin. Politically radical, he became a prominent Socialist and was a close friend and colleague of William Morris. But as you can see in his art he had a good sense of humor – and loved fantasy and anthropomorphism which he was able to indulge in his contribution to children’s literature.

Walter Crane-Illustrator

Crane was the second son of Thomas Crane, who was a portrait painter and miniaturist.  As a child Crane took a keen interest in art and worked in his father's studio sketching the hands and faces of his father's portrait commissions.

Walter Crane started his development as an artist in his father’s studio. He then progressed to engraver’s draughtsman, which meant that he transferred an artist’s designs onto the engraver’s wood blocks.  Later he became an illustrator in his own right, contributing to books and magazines. His success there led to commissions designing wallpaper, tiles, and other household goods.  As a wood-engraver Crane had an opportunity to study his contemporary artists whose work passed through his hands, of Pre-Raphaelites Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais, as well as Alice in Wonderland illustrator Sir John Tenniel and Frederick Sandys. During this time Crane studied Japanese color prints and applied the style to a series of toy books, which started a new fashion.

Crane painted a set of colored page designs to illustrate Tennyson's “Lady of Shalott” which earned him acclaim and he found recognition and approval of wood-engraver William James Linton, to whom Walter Crane was apprenticed for three years (1859–1862).

Linton saw Crane’s aptitude for drawing and design and gave him assignments to improve his skills. In 1862, Crane’s apprenticeship came to an end, but his drawing skills and his contacts through Linton earned him an invitation to work as an illustrator for Edmund Evans, the leading woodblock color printer of the time.

In the 1860s, color printing with wood blocks was a promising new aspect of the expanding book market, which was quickly growing thanks to the increasing literacy rate. Evans first employed Crane to design book covers for his “yellow back” (referring to the yellow enameled covering paper that didn’t show wear as quickly) novels when he was only eighteen years old. Though Crane quickly adapted to the coloring work, it was his difficulty with rendering everyday scenes that prompted Evans to move him from “yellow backs” to children’s books, where he could apply his imagination to illustrate children’s nursery rhymes and fairy tales in short, inexpensive picture books referred to as Toy Books (popular in the Victorian era) for Routledge Publishing. Crane illustrated thirty-seven toy books over the next ten years, earning him the title “academician of the nursery,” and effectively pigeon-holing his artistic style as that of a children’s book illustrator.

Though his work with Evans during this time made him the most famous children’s book illustrator of his day, Crane was not enthusiastic about this moniker, and did not think much of the Toy Books that he was illustrating.  He was quoted as saying “They were not very inspiring. These were generally careless and unimaginative woodcuts, very casually colored by hand…” Despite his chagrin for the simplicity of children’s book illustration, Crane did devote a great deal of time to his designs, and to the way that children viewed pictures.

Crane’s early books were heavily influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, with flat, decorative compositions and deep perspective. He, like the Pre-Raphaelites, viewed each book as a work, in which every design element was reflective of the whole, including the covers and endpapers.

In 1865, Crane visited an art gallery in Piccadilly, London where he viewed Work, a painting by Ford Madox Brown. Though this piece did not have an immediate impact on his artistic style, the subject matter did have a profound impact on his long-term career. The painting shows historian Thomas Carlyle and F.D. Maurice, head of the Christian Socialist Movement observing the labors of a group of working-class men. Madox Brown’s revolutionary painting was a milestone for British art because it was the first time an artist had deemed a working-class person a subject worthy of painting. Crane’s artistic career was composed of political works, focused on the Socialist movement, and his non-political works, which were often considered to be his best pieces. Crane viewed art as a tool for revolution, an implement that could be used to change the minds of society. He worked on Socialist pamphlets and posters when he was not illustrating children’s books. An example of his political views being applied to children’s literature can be seen in his successful illustrations for Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm (1882). Considered by many to be one of his most notable works, these illustrations were filled with historical and allegorical connotations that spoke to the political consciousness of social reform.

Walter Crane married Mary Frances Andrews on 6th September 1871. They spent the next eighteen months in Italy, where he painted portraits, landscapes and continued his book illustrations. He had paintings accepted by the Royal Academy and had several exhibitions in London art galleries.

Walter Crane the Socialist

In 1884, Crane and Morris joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). Its leader, H. M. Hyndman, had been converted to socialism by reading the works of Karl Marx. Crane contributed illustrations for the party journal Justice that was edited by Henry Hyde Champion. As he later explained that he agreed to work for free as "all the work on the journal was gratuitous, from the writers of the articles to the compositors and printers." In one of his most popular drawings, "Capitalism was represented as a vampire fastening on a slumbering workman, and an emblematic figure of Socialism endeavors to arouse him to a sense of his danger by the blast of a clarion.”

William Morris speaking from a wagon in Hyde Park, May 1 1894 by Walter Crane

 On 13th November 1887 Walter Crane was involved, along with William Morris in what became known as Bloody Sunday, when three people were killed and 200 injured during a public meeting in Trafalgar Square. Crane later recalled, "I never saw anything more like real warfare in my life - only the attack was all on one side." The police, despite their numbers, apparently thought they could not cope with the crowd. The following week, a friend, Alfred Linnell, was fatally injured during another protest demonstration and this event resulted in Morris’s writing Death Song. Crane provided the cover drawing for this work. Crane, because of a suggestion made by his friend and fellow socialist George F. Watts, provided twelve designs that illustrated heroic deeds carried out by working-class people. This included Alice Ayres, who died while rescuing three children from a fire, and two Paisley railway workers who were killed during an attempt to help others in trouble. This work was first shown at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in 1890.

Walter Crane became a close friend of Oscar Wilde, who also held socialist beliefs. Wilde, who was editor of Woman's World, commissioned him to provide illustrations for the magazine. In 1888 Crane also contributed three full-page illustrations for Wilde's highly successful book, The

Crane, like many socialists, believed that wars were often begun by capitalists for reasons of commerce rather than for idealism. In 1900 Crane resigned from the Fabian Society over its decision not to condemn the Boer War. Walter Crane published his autobiography, An Artist's Reminiscences in 1907. In the book he attempted to explain why he had spent so much of his life fighting for socialism: "Such experiences convinced me that freedom in any country is measured by the impunity with which unpopular opinions can be uttered - especially those advocating drastic political or social changes"

Crane's work contributed a lasting impression on the art of the labour movement in Britain. Between the 1880s and World War I, the socialist artwork developed by Crane can be seen on posters, pamphlets, membership cards and trade union banners. Crane's work was also widely circulated in Europe, and in Italy and Germany his reputation as an artist was greater than it was in England.

Crane’s most famous work is often considered to be the illustrations he created for Edmund Spenser’s 16th century epic poem, The Faerie Queen (originally published 1590). The design elements of the Arts and Crafts movement clearly influenced Crane’s style in these illustrations. Like John Ruskin, Edward Burne-Jones, and William Morris, Crane was looking back to the English Gothic style for inspiration, viewing it as an honest time where the artists were craftsmen, and the craftsmen were artists. Crane’s focus on the design of an entire book as a cohesive whole are especially evident in this tome, as the intricate borders mesh seamlessly with the medieval scenes. His illustrations for The Faerie Queen (1894-1897) garnered such high praise that it is one of the most beautiful works of the late 19th century Arts and Crafts movement. Crane’s intricately decorated borders, calligraphy, and Gothic Revival images blend into one harmonious whole, echoing lavish creations by William Morris and his Kelmscott Press.

At this point in the late 19th century, there was a shift towards referencing the medieval era as a pastoral, idyllic period of time, which Crane and the followers of the Arts and Crafts movement perpetuated. The industrialization of England inspired many to reminisce and look to the past for simpler, “honest” work that connected them to nature and the land. This yearning for a connection to nature may be part of what drew Crane to work primarily with woodblock prints, a natural technique that was often used in the medieval era, and earlier. This method certainly connected him with the past, as well as with natural materials, and yielded an old-fashioned, less polished appearance appropriate for the fantastical and historical stories he illustrated.

Walter Crane the Author

Walter Crane also wrote books, including Of the Decorative Illustration of Books Old and New (1896), India Impressions (1907), and An Artist’s Reminiscences (1907). Much of his writing and illustrating, especially later in his life, was focused on his socialist politics, which had a lasting impact on the art of the labour movement in Britain, and heightened his artistic reputation in Europe, especially Germany. His populist approach to art ensured that he exerted a great deal of influence on illustration and book design at the end of the 19th century, arguably more than William Morris. Throughout the 1890s Crane contributed to socialist periodicals that published his political cartoons featuring themes that more subtly permeated his earlier work. This continued until the end of his career.

On 18th December 1914 Crane's wife Mary was found dead on the railway line near Kingsnorth in Kent. The couple had been married for forty-four years and Crane was devastated by her death. Walter Crane died three months later in Horsham Hospital, on 14th March 1915. When Crane died in 1915 his obituary in The Times summed him up as “one of the chiefs of those artists who redeemed English design from hopeless and incompetent ugliness.”  But it continued “if we were less familiar with his work, we should see its originality more clearly. But we have known it since our childhood, when we enjoyed his children’s books so much that, rather ungratefully, we have never enjoyed any of his works so keenly since.”

Grant Wood, 1891-1942, was one of the principal Artistic Regionalists of the 1930s. He depicted his Iowan subjects in a deliberately primitive manner, almost satirizing them. His art was highly influenced by the volatile events of World War One and The Great Depression.  The name Grant Wood brings to mind, the Midwest, farms and traditional Americana. Wood used his art to portray his perception of the American Midwest, its people, and his ideas of the American Legacy in his art.

Grant Wood Sketching

Grant Wood was born on Feb. 13, 1891, at Anamosa, Iowa. His father, a farmer, died in 1901, and the family moved to Cedar Rapids. There Grant took drawing lessons from local artists and attended high school. He studied design briefly in Minneapolis at the Handicraft Guild, taught school near Cedar Rapids, and then took a job in 1913 in a silversmith shop in Chicago and attended night classes at the Art Institute. In 1916 he registered at the Art Institute for full-time study as a "fresco painter."

During World War One Wood served in Washington, D.C., where he made clay models of field gun positions and helped camouflage artillery pieces. After teaching art in a Cedar Rapids high school, he left for Europe in 1923. He spent most of the next 14 months in Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian. The paintings he did in Paris were in an impressionistic manner.

Yes, believe it or not Grant Wood started out as an Impressionist painter. Like the Impressionist artist Claude Monet, they both studied the colors and light of the natural world to create works during different seasons, times of day, and places.

In 1927 Wood received a commission for a stained-glass window memorializing the veterans of World War I to be installed in the Cedar Rapids City Hall. To learn the technique of stained glass he went to Munich. There he admired the work of the 15th-century French and German primitive painters and began to work in a linear, primitivizing style. When he returned to The United States In the late 1920s he painted portraits of his mother and local Iowans.

Grant Wood was one of the first artists to promote and create art in the Regionalism movement.  Wood and his contemporaries strived to create art that was uniquely American. It is both ironic and intriguing that in this struggle he was influenced by European styles from the Renaissance to Impressionism.

In 1930 Grant Wood finished American gothic. Grant Wood's American Gothic—the double portrait of a pitchfork-wielding farmer and a woman commonly presumed to be his wife—is perhaps the most recognizable painting in 20th century American art, an indelible icon of Americana, and certainly Wood's most famous artwork.

An example of his use of Regionalism is his painting The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover, depicting the home where the president was born in West Branch, Iowa. Wood painted this before the house became a landmark, and it is located near where Wood grew up. By painting and naming this specific scene he is predicting its historical importance and creating a tie between rural America, the presidency, and even himself.

As Wood painting style evolved, he uses his signature bird’s eye view perspective so that the viewer feels as if he or she is looking down upon the scene rather than at an eye level. The perspective is so zoomed in that the viewer can see each individual tree leaf and even tiny acorns placed at the very top of a tree. His scenes are like miniature reproductions of towns, and it creates a dream-like appearance even though he is depicting real places.  His trees are enormous compared to the homes he illustrates, emphasizing how nature dominates over the homes and people. He idealized the countryside and disliked the large urban settings, using Regionalism to depict the contrasts between man and nature. Regionalism was used to not only depict life in the country but to give voices to those who did not have one in cosmopolitan cities.

Wood’s interpretation of the Midwestern landscape and its people were nostalgic and reminded people of the traditional way of rural life that was largely disappearing. With the rise of industrialized cities, Wood’s paintings have become a record of what life was like during his time. They are nostalgic because his landscapes look like something from a daydream, but they also showcase the realities of people’s lives in rural towns. His paintings portray real images of his childhood, and they became a way for him to hold onto those sentimental memories. With this perspective, his works are melancholy in the hopes that civilization would return to their roots of being an agricultural nation. 

In addition to his landscape paintings, Wood created American imagery that contained satirical and political themes. Parson Weems’ Fable depicts Parson Weems himself pulling back a curtain to show a depiction of his tale of George Washington cutting down a cherry tree and not being able to tell a lie. Wood utilizes this image to literally “pull away the curtain” and showcase the reality behind the myth.

Wood died relatively young of pancreatic cancer, one day before his 51st birthday in 1942. His estate went to his sister Nan Wood Graham, the model for the female in “American Gothic.” When she died in 1990, her estate, along with Grant Wood’s personal effects and various works of art, became the property of the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa.

Self Portrait.  Grant Wood updated and repainted his self portrait many times and at his death did not consider it finished.

Grant Wood was one of the major Regionalists, a group of painters who in the 1930s employed a variety of naturalistic styles.

American Regionalism was an American realist modern art movement that included paintings, murals, lithographs, and illustrations depicting realistic scenes of rural and small-town America primarily in the Midwest. It grew in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression and ended in the 1940s with the end of World War II. Regionalism reached was popular from 1930 to 1935, with its reassuring images of the American heartland during the Great Depression. Despite major stylistic differences between specific artists, Regionalist art in general was a conservative and traditionalist style that appealed to popular American sensibilities, while strictly opposing the perceived domination of French art

Before World War II, the concept of Modernism was not clearly defined within the context of American art. There was a struggle to define a uniquely American art.  On the path to determining what American art would be, some American artists rejected the modern trends European influences. By rejecting European abstract styles, American artists chose to adopt academic realism, which depicted American urban and rural scenes. Due to the Great Depression, Regionalism became one of the dominant art movements in America in the 1930s. In This era the United States was heavily agricultural.  A small portion of the United States population was living in industrial cities.

American Regionalism is best known through its "Regionalist Triumvirate" consisting of the three most highly respected artists of America's Great Depression era: Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry. All three studied art in Paris, but devoted their lives to creating a truly American form of art. They believed that the solution to urban problems in American life and the Great Depression was for the United States to return to its rural, agricultural roots.

American Modernism

When World War II ended, Regionalism and Social Realism lost status in the art world. The end of World War II ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity, and the Cold War brought a change in the political perception of Americans and allowed Modernist critics to gain power. Regionalism and Social Realism also lost popularity among American viewers due to a lack of development within the movement due to the primarily rural subject matter. Abstract expressionism became the new prominent and popular artistic movement.

Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyeth were the primary successors to Regionalism's natural realism. Rockwell became widely popular with his illustrations of the American family in magazines. Wyeth on the other hand painted Christina's World, which competes with Wood's American Gothic for the title of America's favorite painting.

Regionalism has had a strong and lasting influence on popular culture, particularly in America. It has given America some of its most iconic pieces of art that symbolize the country. Regionalist-type imagery influenced many American children's book illustrators and still shows up in advertisements, movies, and novels today.

Lotus Flower and a Dragonfly by Ohara Hōson Shōson

Ohara Hōson Shōson The Japanese Painter of Nature

Ohara Koson, also known as Ohara Hōson or Ohara Shōson, was a Japanese painter and woodblock print designer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, part of the shin-hanga ("new prints") movement.

Photograph of Koson around the age of 53

If you’ve read some of my earlier blogs about other Asian artists, you’ll notice that it was very common to use what are called “Art Names” or pseudonyms, (called gō in Japanese, or hao in Mandarin), which some artists adopted at different stages of their career to mark significant changes in their life or work. Extreme practitioners of this tendency were Tang Yin of the Ming dynasty, who had more than ten hao, and Hokusai of Japan, who in the period 1798 to 1806 alone used no fewer than six. In Ohara’s case, he was born Ohara Matao (Ohara is the family surname), and during his lifetime, used several different "go" names, including Shoson, Koson, and Hoson.

Boat and Setting Sun by Ohara Koson Shoson by Ohara Hōson Shōson

Little is known about Ohara.  He was born in Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture in the North of Japan around 1877.  It is thought that he started training at the Ishikawa Prefecture Technical School in 1889–1893, where he studied painting and design, and studied with the painter Suzuki Kason (1860-1908) either while there or after he moved to Tokyo. It is likely that he received his first “go” (artist’s name) Koson from Kason.

Ohara’s career bridged the era between the decline of the full-color woodblock print (nishiki-e) in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the emergence of the Shin-hanga ("new print") movement in the 1910s.

Two women in the snow on Yanagi Bridge by Ohara Hōson Shōson

Around 1900 he became a teacher at the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko (Tokyo School of Fine Arts), where he is said to have met the American Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908), then a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University, now the University of Tokyo, and an advocate of the traditional Japanese arts. Under Fenollosa’s encouragement, Koson began producing kachō-e (bird and flower) prints and exhibiting his paintings and woodcuts in the United States.  Now considered the most important and prolific kachō-e artist, Ohara  created around 500 prints and met with great success in the Western world, particularly the United States and Europe. He has only recently received attention in his native Japan following the discovery of important reference material including original sketches and paintings for his prints.

While in Tokyo, he produced many ukiyo-e triptychs illustrating episodes of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and earned his money with them.  However, the bulk of his art were prints of birds-and-flowers (kachō-e). At first, he worked with publishers Akiyama Buemon (Kokkeidō) and Matsuki Heikichi (Daikokuya), This was where he signed his work Koson.

Mallard Ducks in Flight by Ohara Hōson Shōson

In the following years, new versions of many of these prints were created, using re-carved blocks; typically, the re-issued "post-quake" prints included changes and revisions in the designs. When Ohara began publishing with Watanabe, he adopted the go “Shoson”. His prints are generally not dated and frequently without publisher seals. Watanabe began publishing Shoson’s prints in 1926.

The subject matter and style of Shôson's prints appealed to the Western market and thus much of his work was intended for export. His compositional style and marketing significantly affected how his works were viewed in Japan, as he was considered an artist somewhat outside the circle of those who designed prints for Japanese taste.

Sparrows on Bamboo by Ohara Hōson Shōson

Through his association with Watanabe, Ohara's work was exhibited abroad, and his prints sold well, particularly in the United States. He was active designing prints until at least 1935 and died at his home in Tokyo in 1945.

Water Lily Flower by Ohara Hōson Shōson

Ohara’s work is held in museums worldwide, including the Toledo Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the British Museum, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Harvard Art Museums, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Museum of New Zealand.

The Manggha museum in Krakow, Poland held a large retrospective in 2021 from the collection of Romanian musical artist Adrian Ciceu, brother of Eugen Cicero.

Magpie Bird in Tree By Ohara Hōson Shōson

https://ukiyo-e.org/artist/shoson-ohara

 https://www.artelino.com/articles/koson_ohara.asp

https://onevisionart.printstoreonline.com/galleries/ohara-matao

https://www.woodblockprints.org/index.php/Detail/entities/25

 https://www.myjapanesehanga.com/home/artists/ohara-koson-1877---1945-/

John Gould

The Bird Man

Jenny Eugenia Nyström Self Portrait With Son Curt

Jenny Eugenia Nyström The Extraordinary Artist Who Loved Painting Children

“…The reason I mainly illustrate children’s books is probably because I have always loved children and have always wanted to show children something of the fair sunny land east of the sun and west of the moon, beauty which has remained in my memory from my childhood in Kalmar. Maybe now you can also understand why I prefer to draw beautiful images…”

Girl in Native Swedish Dress By Jenny Eugenia Nyström

Jenny Nyström was a Swedish artist and an illustrator. She was the first woman in Sweden to be awarded a royal medal for her historically themed paintings. She was a prolific painter and illustrator. Her fame was built on the popularity of her Tomte, Elf, Gnome themed illustrations (a mythological creature often associated with Christmas) illustrations. However, her joy came from her illustrations of children enjoying their lives. Her popularity to this day is built on her illustrations that depict everyday family life in books, magazines, and cards as well as her holiday themed illustrations.

Girl With Ducks by Jenny Eugenia Nyström

Jenny Nyström was born in Kalmar, Sweden. She was a creative artistic child. The daughter of a schoolteacher Jenny Nyström was the third of five children. When she was reminiscing about her happy childhood, she recalled it as idyllic. Jenny had a large extended family and when she was young, she lived in a house her maternal grandparents, two maternal aunts and her maternal great grandmother. Jenny’s father a schoolteacher managed her education while her mother concentrated on Jenny’s creative and artistic upbringing.

3 Girls and a Secret by Jenny Eugenia Nyström

In 1863 the family left Kalmar and moved to Gothenburg Sweden.  This was a very sad time for Jenny who felt that leaving the security and warmth of her family, friends left her adrift. Jenny recalled that images of the people and the area were indelible stored in her memory and fueled many of her future illustrations.

Tomte as Drawn by Fredrik Wohlfart Jenny’s Teacher 1864

In 1869 Jenny began to study at the Gothenburg Museum Art School. Her teacher, Fredrik Wohlfart, inspired her to paint images of “Tomte”. To perfect her illustrations Jenny researched Tomte folklore by reading a children's story by the Swedish Author and Poet Viktor Rydberg called “Little Vigg’s Adventure on Christmas Eve”. In it the boy Vigg was taken for a ride through space by a friendly “Tomte” on his visit to children to bring presents. (The “Tomte” is a Nordic mythological figure, who protects and watches over humans, animals, and homes usually in the country. At Christmas time he is usually awarded with a dish of white Christmas rice porridge). Jenny was a budding artist, and she was fascinated by the story that she sat down and drew a “Tomte” riding through space in a sleigh drawn by eight horses. With these illustrations the Swedish Christmas Tomte (a cousin to Santa Claus) was born. Jenny drew him as a small, tousled old man with a white beard, gray trousers and tunic and a red conical pointed cap. When Viktor Rydberg saw the drawing, he was so pleased that he asked Jenny to illustrate his 'book about Vigg’s adventures and the new version with Jenny’s illustrations was published the following year.

Self Portrait Paris 1884 by Jenny Eugenia Nyström

In 1871, Jenny’s illustrations were noticed by regional governor Albert Ehrensvärd. He invited her to Stockholm to visit art galleries and to go to the National Museum there. By 1873 Jenny had enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm where she studied for eight years. To support herself she sold magazine subscriptions and sold her paintings to the magazine Ny Illustrerad Tidning. Jenny travelled to Paris in November 1882 and enrolled at the Académie Colarossi, two years later, in 1884, she joined the Paris salon and had her first exhibit of her work.

The Convalescence by Jenny Eugenia Nyström

In the autumn of 1884, she became engaged to a medical student, Daniel Stoopendaal, whom she had met when she was studying.  In 1887, Jenny married Daniel Stoopendaal, and they moved into a large apartment on Tegnérgatan. Daniel caught tuberculosis and was never able to finish his studies and work.  This left Jenny Nyström as the sole support of the family.  Their only son, son, Curt Nyström-Stoopendaal, was born in June 1893.

Young Boy on His Dala Horse by Jenny Eugenia Nyström

Being the main support of the family was hard work cobbling together a living selling her illustrations and art works to several magazines, different book publishers and other employers. From the 1880s onwards until her death she illustrated many children’s books and historical novels. She also painted cover images for newspapers and journals.

Tomte With Baby and Presents in Backpack by Jenny Eugenia Nyström

 In 1911 she signed a contract to draw greeting cards for a publishing house. This meant that she needed to produce a certain number of watercolours each month as a background illustration for the cards. These illustrations gained great exposure for her name and art.

Young Girl Feeding Birds in Winter by Jenny Eugenia Nyström

Jenny Nyström was creative and productive her whole life.   She died peacefully in her home in Stockholm on 17 January 1946. Now 75 years after her death her cards are still being printed and enjoyed throughout the world.

Young girl and Mother on a Shopping Trip by Jenny Eugenia Nyström

Jenny Nyström became the mother to the Swedish Christmas Tomte, she also introduced the Swedish Christmas Card. Her colorful watercolors of friendly Tomte in red caps, usually watching over the family in red farm home set in a white winter landscape, has become classic. While her art was classic it was also modern and whimsical at the same time.  You might see a “Tomte” flying an airplane, driving a car, a truck, a motorcycle or even a train.

Tomte Delivering Presents from Airplane by Jenny Eugenia Nyström

She mixed exotic animals like elephants and giraffes as “Tomte” assistants for delivering Christmas presents across Sweden. She mixed these entertaining elements with classical traditional Christmas imagery such as Christmas goats, Christmas trees, sleighs, toboggans and more.

A Tomte Winter Scene by Curt Nyström Stoopendaal (1893-1965)

Jenny’s son Curt followed in her footsteps and also became a popular postcard and poster artist, staying very close to his mother’s artistic style. Even his signature, “Curt Nyström”, looks similar to his mother’s. Jenny’s brother-in-law, Georg Stoopendaal, painting in the beginning of the 19th century found postcards and Christmas Cards to be a good source of income, to augment his sales of landscapes and his more serious paintings.

A Tomte Relaxing by Curt Nyström Stoopendaal (1893-1965)

“Landschaft mit Kirche und Weg” (Landscape with church and lane) by August Macke-1911

” The most important thing for me is the direct observation of nature in its light-filled existence.” August Macke

German expressionist painter August Macke was born August Robert Ludwig Macke on January 3, 1887. His father, August Friedrich, was a civil engineer and a successful building contractor, who drew in his spare time. His mother, Maria Florentine was from a farm family and always instilled in her family a love of nature.  During his school years, August Macke had a fascination of art and a talent for sketching and painting.   

 Self-portrait by August Macke 1906

In 1903 he met his future wife Elisabeth Gerhardt, the daughter of Bonn factory owner Carl Gerhardt.  Elisabeth became his most important model. Macke painted portraits of her more than two hundred times.

Portrait of the artist's wife with a hat by August Macke 1909

In 1904, August left school and began training at the Royal Academy of Art in Düsseldorf. His family, who always thought he would be an engineer was opposed to this change in training.   But the rebel in Macke caused him to criticize the rigid curriculum. So he simultaneously began attending classes at Düsseldorf Kunstgewerbeschule with a more diverse art curriculum.    During this period August Macke also widened his interests an  designed stage decorations and costumes for a series of performances. Macke took a trip to Paris in 1907, where he fell in love with impressionism art.

Saint George by August Macke 1912

In 1908 to 1909 August served his mandatory one-year of military service, which interrupted his artistic work.  

August Macke and Elisabeth Gerhardt photographed in Bonn during 1908

After completing his military service, he married Elisabeth Gerhardt in October 1909. The couple’s honeymooned in Paris, where August Macke encountered works by the Fauves and the Futurists. At one exhibition he met Franz Marc. August and Franz soon became close friends, and the more established artist began to mentor him.

August, Elisabeth, Walter and Wolfgang Macke photographed in 1911

Elisabeth and August had two sons, Walter and Wolfgang. The couple often socialized with other artists such as Franz Marc and his wife Maria. They also spent time with Gabriele Münter and her group of Avant Garde Artists.  Münter studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky and this group of artists became leading-founding members of the expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter.

“A work of art is a parable, it is man’s thought, an autonomous idea of an artist, a song about the beauty of things: a work of art is the noble differentiated expression of man who is capable of something more than merely saying: ‘Isn’t that beautiful?’ “Auguste Macke.

"To hear the thunder is to perceive its secret. To understand the language of forms means to be closer to the secret, to live." - August Macke

The Garden by August Macke 1911

From 1910 to 1913 Macke was extremely busy creating his art and championing his opinions about art and nature. Exhibitions in renowned galleries ensured that his reputation grew beyond Germany, including participation in an exhibition of Karo-Bube (Jack of Diamonds) in Moscow. In addition, he appeared as an organizer of important exhibitions. At the Gereonsklub in Cologne, he showed works by avant-garde artists who had previously been little known.

Big Zoo Triptych by August Macke 1913

At the outbreak of World War I, Macke was drafted into Infantry Regiment No. 160 on August 1, 1914. His letters from the field reflect the horrors and cruelty of war. He was killed on September 26, 1914, at the age of 27 in Champagne France. Macke is buried in a collective grave in the military cemetery at Souain.

The Farewell by August Macke 1914

The Last picture he ever created was The Farwell.

 Woman in the Garden by August Macke 1911

“Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, abstract painting, are only names given to a change which our artistic thinking wants to make and is thinking. Nobody has ever painted fallen raindrops suspended in the air, they’ve always been depicted as streaks (even the cave-men drew herds of reindeer in the same way). Now people are painting cabs rattling, lights flickering, people dancing, all-in the same way (this is how we all see movement). That is thew whole frightfully simple secret of Futurism. It is very easy to prove its artistic feasibility, for all the philosophizing that has been raised against it. Space, surface, and time are different things, which ought not to be mixed, is the continuous cry. If only it were possible to separate them. I can’t do it.”– August Macke, in a letter to philosopher Eberhard Grisebach, March 1913

Children at the Fountain by August Macke 1914

In the ten years that August Macke painted he created an impressive body of work. His art style underwent many artistic changes.   As a gifted artist Macke integrated his philosophy of art and of life into his paintings.

Edvard Munch and The Dance of Life

 The Scream on Display At Sotheby's Auction House 2012

Admit it – you’ve seen this painting before, and you probably know what it’s called, but you know nothing about who painted it.  You might know his name, but you couldn’t identify another one of his paintings if your life depended on it!  And that’s sad, because Edvard Munch was not only responsible for possibly the most instantly recognizable painting ever created (yes, we’re talking about The Scream), but also thousands of other works including paintings, prints, watercolors, drawings, woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, photographs, and sculptures over 6 decades of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. 
 

Edvard Munch-Self Portrait with Brushes 1904

Munch was a pioneer and influencer of 20^th century artists, and one of the most prolific painters of all time.  He painted his most famous work, his first version of The Scream, in 1893.  He called it The Scream in Nature, but in Norway people call it Skrik, or in English “Shriek”.  Most of the English-speaking world just calls it The Scream.  Munch created multiple versions of many of his paintings, and there would eventually be 3 other versions of The Scream – pastel versions in 1893 and 1895, and a 2^nd painted version around 1910.  He also mass-produced the painting through a lithograph, which enabled him to sell many black and white versions. 
 
In 2012, the 1895 pastel version of The Scream was sold at Sotheby’s in London for 120 million US Dollars, which at the time was a record sale for a work of art.  The Scream is also a popular target of art thieves – a version was stolen from Oslo’s National Gallery in 1994.  The thieves left a note saying, “Thanks for the poor security”.  It was recovered 3 months later.  In 2004, the 1910 version of The Scream, along with another of Munch’s works, Madonna, was stolen at gunpoint from the Munch Museum in Oslo. Both were recovered 2 years later
 

Edvard Munch-The Sun 1909

Munch painted this poem on the frame of his 1895 pastel version, revealing his reason for naming the painting:
 
I was walking along the road with two friends
The Sun was setting – The Sky turned blood red.
And I felt a wave of Sadness – I paused
tired to Death – Above the blue-black
Fjord and City Blood and Flaming tongues hovered 
My Friends walked on – I stayed behind
– quaking with Angst – I felt the great Scream in Nature

 
As you would expect from a man capable of creating this iconic image, Munch had a very tragic childhood.  He was born near Loten, Norway in 1863, and his family moved to Kristiana (what is now known as Oslo), Norway, the following year.  Tuberculosis took his mother when he was five years old, and his older sister Sophia when he was 14.  He also had tuberculosis as a child but managed to live through it.  He was raised by his father, a doctor who suffered from mental illness and obsessive religiousness, and his aunt Karen.  Munch’s father entertained his children with scary ghost stories and readings from Edgar Allen Poe, and warned his children that their dead mother was watching them from heaven and grieving from their misbehavior.   Munch’s father and brother also died when he was still young, and another sister developed mental illness.  The result of all this was a neurotic, sickly man with deep seated anxiety, vulnerability, and a sense of doom and imminent death. 

“Illness, insanity, and death were the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life.”
 

Edvard Munch-Melancholy 1894

His aunt Karen is credited with introducing young Edvard to art.  He showed a flair for drawing at an early age but received little formal training.  He attended the Royal Technical College in Kristiania to train as an engineer but dropped out after a year due to his poor health.  He began devoting more time to painting, and in 1881 enrolled at the Royal School of Art and Design, also in Kristiana, where he studied sculpture. 
 
Munch’s early painting were in the Naturalism style, consisting mainly of landscapes.  For example, Winter Landscape with House and Red Sky, 1881 and Landscape Maridalen by Oslo, 1881.
 
 

Edvard Munch-Landscape Maridalen by Oslo 1881

In 1883 he had his first public exhibit at the Industry and Art Exhibition in Kristiania with his painting Head Study. You can see that at this point Munch was painting more in the Realism style.   In December, Munch made his debut at the Autumn Exhibition, where he exhibited Girl Kindling a Stove and Morning, which was acclaimed by artists.

Edvard Munch-Girl Kindling a Stove 1883

In March 1884, Munch was recommended for the Schäffer scholarship, which he received in September. He attended an open-air academy in late summer.  In 1885, Munch traveled abroad for the first time. He first went to Antwerp, Belgium where he exhibited a portrait of his sister Inger at the World Exhibition in April and May.  Afterwards, he went to Paris and studied the collections at the Louvre. He also attended the Salon des Independents, the annual exhibition of contemporary art where Impressionist painters were able to display their paintings.  In 1886 Munch exhibited four paintings at the Autumn Exhibition, including one of his main works, The Sick Child.

Edvard Munch-The Sick Child 1907

During these and subsequent trips to Paris, where he attended the Salon des Independents Exhibitions and saw paintings by van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Munch became familiar with and began adopting the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles.  Munch took up the more graphic, symbolist sensibility of Gaugin, and in turn became one of the most controversial and eventually renowned artists among a new generation of continental Expressionist and Symbolist painters.  He also lived in Paris at the same time as Vincent Van Gogh, but there was no evidence that they ever met.

Edvard Munch-The Seine in St Cloud 1890

From 1892 to 1896, Munch lived in Berlin. The city’s intellectual community furthered his interest in exploring the joys and disappointment of love, and his paintings began showing emotions like loss, anguish, and despair.  Munch came to treat the visible as though it were a window into a not fully formed, if not fundamentally disturbing, human psychology.  

Edvard Munch-Taverne in St. Cloud 1890

In the first decade of the 20th century, during the peak of the Art Nouveau movement, Munch continued his evolution, exploring his versions of Impressionism, Expressionism, and Modernism. 

Edvard Munch-The Family on the Road 1903 

In 1906, he painted a posthumous portrait of famous German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose nihilist beliefs coincide with The Scream’s depiction of existential dread.   

Edvard Munch- Friedrich Nietzsche 1906

His version of Starry Night can easily be mistaken for a work by Van Gogh
 

Edvard Munch- Starry Night 1893

Munch faced criticism from critics that his paintings didn’t seem to be finished.  But he wanted them to look that way.  He wanted them to be raw and rough, and not smooth and shiny. It was emotion he wanted to depict. "It's not the chair that should be painted," he once wrote, "but what a person has felt at the sight of it."

Edvard Munch-The Lonely Ones 1896

Munch never married and referred to his paintings as his children.  When he died in 1944 at the age of 80, basically a revered self-imposed recluse, authorities discovered over 1,000 paintings, 4,400 drawings, and more than 15,000 prints, as well as many other works in different mediums locked in the 2^nd floor of his house.  He bequeathed these items the Norwegian Government, and most of these items are now displayed in the Munch Museum, which opened in 1963.   

Edvard Munch in 1926 

 Edvard Munch-The Dance of Life 1899

Andy Warhol generated renewed interest in Munch in 1984, when he was commissioned to create pop-art from The Scream.

Please visit our store to see our selection of Cross-Stitch Patterns inspired by the works of Edvard Munch.