Two new Swedish paintings for Orsay

3/10/23 - Acquisitions - Paris, Musée d’Orsay - As we recently pointed out when Carl Forsberg’s superb watercolour entered the Musée d’Orsay’s collections (see the news item of 9/2/23), Scandinavian art is one of the main focuses of the Musée d’Orsay’s current acquisitions policy. Comprising ten drawings and around twenty paintings, the strictly Swedish corpus already in its collections has been expanded to include two new artists, Oscar Björck (ill. 1) and Oskar Bergman (ill. 2), who have not previously featured in French public collections. Both a portrait and a genre scene, In the Nursery by Oscar Björck has already been added to the permanent collection, where it completes the room devoted to representations of childhood. The large canvas was acquired from the Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen on 1 March 2022 after being sold for €53,768 at the hammer. Oskar Bergman’s landscape Puddles in the Snow was donated to the museum by Michel Descours. Together with Benjamin Peronnet, the gallery owner organised a memorable retrospective of the Swedish painter and watercolourist in November 2021 (see news item of 1/11/21). At the time, we were keen to see his works exhibited in a French museum, and now we have.

1. Oscar Björck (1860-1929)
In the nursery, 1889
Oil on canvas - 121.5 x 146
Paris, Musée d’Orsay
Photo: Musée d’Orsay

See the image in its page

Formerly entitled The Janse Children, In the Nursery is a group portrait commissioned from Oscar Björck by Swedish Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Fredrik Daniel Janse and his wife Karolina Elisabeth Janse. The painting was executed in 1889, when the now established artist was appointed a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, where he had just settled. The portrait genre was to occupy a larger place in his work, both intimate and official effigies, as shown by those dedicated to Swedish royalty, such as the informal Prince Eugen at his easel or the more traditional Oscar II in Stockholm’s…