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Ernst
Josefson

Sweden • 1851−1906

Came from a Jewish family. At the age of 16 years, Josephson entered the Stockholm Academy of arts, where he studied from 1869 to 1876. In 1874, he briefly studied with Jean-Leon Gerome at the Ecole des Beaux arts in Paris. In 1879, the artist settled in Paris, where he lived until 1886. In the end, he moved to Stockholm, where he was attended to by two ladies until the artist's death in 1906.

The famous Swedish painter, born. in 1851 in Stockholm, the mind. in 1906 the Family. occupied a prominent position among Swedish Jews. The father led a large trade, and Th. his desire was to study Commerce, but the natural vocation prevailed, and on the 18th year he entered the local Academy of arts, which he finished with honors; in 1876 he went abroad for improvement. This time was critical to the Western-European art. Dissatisfaction with old academic art in his predominantly German form especially were fed with news about a new direction in French painting. Paris became a center where everywhere flocked to the fresh young talents, enthusiastically rushed them there at the specified path of pure scenic beauty. Young Scandinavians in the naive immediacy surpassed students from other countries and became zealous adherents of the new direction. Among the Swedes. was one of the first in time and almost first in temperament; naturally, he became the head of a young Parisian colony. Their flair. found that joined in Paris by E. Manet, and not to the first promoter of impressionism Bastion-Lenazh, setmovable sometimes representatives of a new direction. During the first four years of his overseas stay. went to Italy and gained experiences in the countries of the picturesque par excellence, — the Netherlands and Spain. 1880. settles in Paris for a long time, and its effects are subject to all local young Swedes. Gorgeous portrait. wrote hunchback-painter K. Skanberg. Next to the colourful element of it is particularly powerful move in the psychological impressiveness, the trace of the intense searches not finding calm temperament, chastened, however, the right artistic instinct. In 1885 almost all of the Swedish colony sent home there to join in the fight for recognition of his new art. Exhibition Th. was the whole event; all she was struck by its daring innovations, but the country is a force of talent in addition to the will was sent on a new path. Among constant struggle. prepared to apply the technical conquest of his brush to decorative tasks. Differently gifted — he was a musician, a singer, an excellent Amateur actor, had a fascinating way with words, and two collections of his poems, "Black roses" and "Yellow roses," drew universal attention to himself, he sought the expression on the canvas of the whole person; he was attracted by the romanticism, and the home he created two paintings of the "NEK" (the Kobold) and "Strömkarlen" (spirit falls). But here, among the brilliant success in society, of the inevitable disappointments of persistent struggle against the official pedantry, his spirit could not stand, in 1888. fell into incurable madness, pursued him to death. However, even in this state. did not release the pencil out of his hand, countless strange drawings of this time has recently attracted the attention of psychiatrists at first, and then the serious connoisseurs of art began to appear at exhibitions and reproductions in art magazines. At first glance, of course, they discover the painful state of mind of the author; the human form and face strangely distorted and disfigured; but upon closer inspection, the drawings are although strange, but a purely artistic impression. Of course, these works evoke a sad sense of loss of a major artistic force.

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