ArtistDanish-Swedish
Axel Lind
3 active items
Axel Lind was born on 1 August 1907 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and lived to the age of 103, passing away on 28 May 2011 in Skagen. His path to painting was anything but direct. As a young man, he trained as an opera singer in Copenhagen and was sent to Italy to continue his vocal studies under the great tenor Beniamino Gigli in Rome. During this period, he reportedly painted a portrait of Gigli as payment for his lessons.
Lind's next chapter took him into journalism. Working as a reporter for the Copenhagen newspaper Politiken, he covered the Finnish Winter War in 1939-1940, serving simultaneously as an ambulance driver and singing for soldiers at the front. By the early 1950s he made a decisive break, setting aside writing and singing entirely and turning to oil painting with a focus on the sea.
His subject matter became his signature. Lind painted waves, coastlines, harbors, and open water in all seasons and all light conditions. He also produced portraits of some distinction, including likenesses of Gösta Ekman and Sophia Loren, but it was the marine work that defined his reputation.
Lind settled in Sweden and lived for nearly thirty years in Villa Lindarna in Hovås, just south of Gothenburg. Later in life, he moved to Skagen at the northern tip of Denmark. In 1977, he founded the Grenen Art Museum on the ruins of the old bathing hotel at Grenen and established a cultural fund to support artists.
On the Swedish auction market, 109 lots are recorded. Göteborgs Auktionsverk leads with 34 lots. His marine oils command the strongest prices: "Vågor" sold for 23,000 SEK, "Havsmotiv" reached 20,000 SEK. Nearly all auction appearances are paintings (99 of 109).