Two Original Illustrations for the Songbook Mors lilla Olle och andra

Two Original Illustrations for the Songbook
Mors lilla Olle och andra visor af Alice Tegnér,
Created by Elsa Beskow in 1903
Ulf Cederlöf
Senior Curator, Prints and Drawings
Art Bulletin of
Nationalmuseum
Stockholm
Volume 21
Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm,
is published with generous support from
the Friends of the Nationalmuseum.
Nationalmuseum collaborates with
Svenska Dagbladet and Grand Hôtel Stockholm.
We would also like to thank FCB Fältman &
Malmén.
Cover Illustrations
Domenico Fetti (1588/89–1623), David with the
Head of Goliath, c. 1617/20. Oil on canvas,
161 x 99.5 cm. Purchase: The Wiros Fund.
Nationalmuseum, NM 7280.
Publisher
Berndt Arell, Director General
Editor
Janna Herder
Editorial Committee
Mikael Ahlund, Magdalena Gram, Janna Herder,
Helena Kåberg, Magnus Olausson and Lidia
Westerberg Olofsson.
Photographs
Nationalmuseum Photographic Studio/
Linn Ahlgren, Olle Andersson, Erik Cornelius,
Anna Danielsson, Cecilia Heisser, Bodil Karlsson
and Sofia Persson.
Picture Editor
Rikard Nordström
Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21, 2014
Photo Credits
© Palazzo d’Arco, Mantua, inv. 4494/Photo:
Nationalmuseum Image Archives, from Domenico
Fetti 1588/89–1623, Eduard Safarik (ed.), Milan,
1996, p. 280, fig. 82 (Figs. 2 and 9A, pp. 13 and
19)
© Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
(Fig. 3, p. 13)
© bpk/Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden/
Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut (Figs. 4, 5B, 6B and
7B, pp. 14–17)
© Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open
Content Program (Figs. 8 and 10B, pp. 18 and
20)
© CATS-SMK (Fig. 10A, p. 20)
© Dag Fosse/KODE (p. 25)
© Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design/
The National Museum of Art, Architecture and
Design, Oslo (p. 28)
© SMK Photo (p. 31)
© From the article ”La Tour and Lundberg’s
portraits of la princesse de Rohan”, by Neil Jeffares,
http://www.pastellists.com/Essays/LaTour_
Rohan.pdf, 2015-09-21, (p. 40)
© The National Gallery, London. Bought, Courtauld Fund, 1924 (p. 42)
© Stockholms Auktionsverk (p. 47)
© Bukowskis, Stockholm (p. 94)
© Thron Ullberg 2008 (p. 108)
© 2014, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
(pp. 133–134)
© Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau (pp. 138–139)
© Museen der Stadt Bamberg (pp. 140 and 142)
© Archive of Thomas Fusenig (p. 141)
© Nordiska museet, Stockholm/Karolina
Kristensson (pp. 148–149)
4
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Graphic Design
BIGG
Layout
Agneta Bervokk
Translation and Language Editing
Gabriella Berggren, Martin Naylor and Kristin
Belkin.
Publishing
Ingrid Lindell (Publications Manager) and
Janna Herder (Editor).
Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum is published
annually and contains articles on the history and
theory of art relating to the collections of the
Nationalmuseum.
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Box 16176
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© Nationalmuseum, the authors and the owners
of the reproduced works
acqui s i t i o n s/t wo o r i g i na l i l l u st r at i o n s
Two Original Illustrations for the Songbook
Mors lilla Olle och andra visor af Alice Tegnér,
Created by Elsa Beskow in 1903
Ulf Cederlöf
Senior Curator, Prints and Drawings
Fig. 2 Elsa Beskow (1874–1953), Småjäntorna stå i dörren (Little Girls are
Standing by the Door), 1903. Pen and black ink, watercolour, 380 x 275 mm.
Purchase: Hedda and N. D. Qvist Fund. Nationalmuseum, NMH 64/2014.
Fig. 1 Elsa Beskow (1874–1953), Ekorrn satt i granen (Squirrel in the Spruce
Tree), 1903. Pen and black ink, watercolour, 380 x 280 mm.
Purchase: Hedda and N. D. Qvist Fund. Nationalmuseum, NMH 63/2014.
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Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21, 2014
acqui si t i o n s/t wo o r i g i na l i l l u st r at i o n s
Elsa Beskow (1874–1953) was one of
the pioneers who set the tone for children’s
books in Sweden. For more than half a century, she wove classic tales, in words and
images, for generations of Swedish children. With her brush and pen, she conveyed
fragrances and moods which, through the
country’s nurseries, have penetrated deep
into the national consciousness. By seeing
the world through the eyes of a child, she
also managed to impart a magic to those
things in life, close at hand, that we often
neglect. In her world, the harsh realities of
nature and life were transformed into an
enchanted fairy tale that stretches across
the seasons. Her idyllisation of a secure
childhood home and the light Swedish
summers was something Elsa Beskow had in
common with another great illustrator and
artist, Carl Larsson. The same can be said of
her watercolour technique, her linear style,
her light palette and her method of composition, with its use of a series of flat, parallel planes. Like Larsson and many other
contemporaries, Beskow found inspiration
in both Japanese woodblock prints and the
English magazine The Studio. At a personal
level though, she would, early on, distance
herself from Carl Larsson on account of his
view of women.
In the 1890s, Elsa Beskow settled in
Djursholm, just north of Stockholm, where her husband Natanael Beskow became a lay preacher at Djursholm Chapel.
Here she made the acquaintance of Alice
Tegnér, who played the organ for the services. When a group of friends wanted to
publish Tegnér’s songs in book form, Elsa
Beskow prepared the illustrations. The
resulting volume, Mors lilla Olle och andra
visor af Alice Tegnér (“Mother’s Little Olle”
and other songs by Alice Tegnér), became
one of the most cherished songbooks of all
time, appearing in countless editions. It was
first published in 1903, and on her birthday
that year Tegnér received a portfolio containing the eleven original illustrations for the
book, put together by “grateful Djursholm
friends”.
Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21, 2014
By inheritance, these sheets were gradually
dispersed among various members of the
Tegnér family, and eventually they found
new owners. In 1995, thanks to a generous
gift from the composer Benny Andersson,
the Nationalmuseum was able to acquire
four of the original images in watercolour
and ink, representing some of the bestknown illustrations from the book: Mors
lilla Olle (Mother’s little Olle), Blåsippan
uti backarna står (Hepatica blue on wooded
slope), Bä, bä vita lamm (Baa, baa, black
sheep) and Sov du lilla vide ung (Sleep, you
little willow young). With the assistance of
the Hedda and N. D. Qvist Fund, the Museum was able to purchase another two at the
Bukowskis autumn sale in 2014: Ekorrn satt i
granen (Squirrel in the spruce tree) (Fig. 1)
and Småjäntorna stå i dörren (Little girls are
standing by the door) (Fig. 2). As a result,
over half the illustrations are now in public
ownership.
The acquisition of these works of Elsa
Beskow is no isolated phenomenon, but
part of the Nationalmuseum’s broader mission to collect children’s book illustrations.
Its holding in this area comprises important
works from the 18th century right down to
the present day. As early as 1974, the Museum was able to acquire from Beskow’s
descendants all the original illustrations
for Tomtebobarnen (Children of the Forest),
which first appeared in print in 1910. Over
the years, the Museum has turned the
spotlight on Elsa Beskow’s art on several
occasions, most recently in 2002 with the
exhibition Elsa Beskow: A Childhood Picture
Treasury, and in 1995 with Elsa Beskow.
At the turn of the 20th century, when
Ellen Key was a major influence on the
debate about children’s education and development, Beskow’s storybooks were entirely in tune with their times. Today, more
than a century later, some of her works may
seem old-fashioned and almost too idyllic.
It would be a mistake, though, to underestimate the significance she has had for
several generations of Swedish children, in
terms of shaping their view of nature, for ex-
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ample, and encouraging a love of reading.
Attention is often drawn to the close connection between words and images in her
storybooks, the balance between humour
and education, and last but not least, the
natural tone of her narrative. Among the
gems of children’s literature which Elsa Beskow left behind, her illustrations for Mors
lilla Olle och andra visor shine particularly
brightly.