ArtistSwedish
Egron Lundgren
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Egron Sellif Lundgren was born on 18 December 1815 in Stockholm. He initially studied at the Teknologiska institutet before redirecting toward art, enrolling at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1835. Four years later he moved to Paris, where he studied under Léon Cogniet and spent time copying paintings at the Louvre - standard preparation for a serious mid-century painter, but Lundgren used it to sharpen a technique that was already gravitating toward watercolor over oil.
From 1841 to 1849 he lived in Italy, mostly within the Scandinavian community in Rome, producing historical subjects and scenes of local peasant life. He then spent roughly four years in Seville, where Spanish light and the culture of popular festivals drew out his most luminous color work. Folkloric scenes, street life, and figure studies from this period show a painter working with increasing confidence in transparent washes and layered tone. From Spain he moved to England, where he was taken up by the London art world and commissioned by Queen Victoria to document ceremonial occasions at the British court. Works from this period are now held in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.
In late 1857, encouraged by the art dealer Thomas Agnew, Lundgren accepted a commission to travel to India and document the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion. He traveled with the British Army to Awadh and spent 1858 to 1859 on the subcontinent, producing more than 500 watercolors and drawings. The range is extraordinary: street scenes, portraits of soldiers and civilians, religious gatherings, bullock carts, views along the Ganges. He sent batches directly to Queen Victoria, who followed his output with particular interest given the political weight of the campaign. In 1864 he was elected to the Royal Watercolour Society in London, one of the few foreign-born members of his era.
He returned to Sweden permanently in 1867, though he continued traveling in his final years - Norway, Egypt, Spain, Italy. He died in Stockholm on 16 December 1875, two days short of his 60th birthday. After his death, the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts established the Egron Lundgren Medal, awarded to outstanding Swedish watercolorists. His works are held at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and the Göteborgs konstmuseum, as well as in the Royal Collection.
At auction, Lundgren appears across major Swedish houses. On Auctionist, his 21 items span paintings, drawings, and mixed media. The top recorded sale was 8,700 EUR for a gouache depicting cherubs riding sea creatures. Indian subjects and figure studies consistently attract serious bidding at Bukowskis Stockholm and Stockholms Auktionsverk, where his works have appeared multiple times. The combination of historical importance, royal provenance connections, and consistent quality keeps his market stable among collectors of 19th-century Nordic art.