ArtistSwedish
Figge Holmgren
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Carl Fredrik Holmgren was born on 16 September 1875 in Lund, in the southernmost province of Sweden, and went by the nickname Figge throughout his life. He died on 2 January 1969 in Helsingborg at the age of 93, having witnessed nearly a century of change in Scandinavian art. His long life encompassed two world wars, the dissolution of the Scandinavian artistic unions with Paris, and the rise of Swedish modernism, all of which left visible marks on his evolving practice.
Holmgren trained first as a craftsman: he attended the Technical School in Malmö from 1891 to 1896, emerging as a trained lithographer. He went on to work at Skånska Litograf A.B. between 1898 and 1907, then moved to Copenhagen, where he spent the years 1904 to 1932. In Denmark he refined his understanding of colour through study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts' Free School under Johan Rohde from 1910 to 1912. Rohde's influence on Danish Symbolism and design thinking fed directly into Holmgren's growing interest in expressive, colour-driven painting. He also worked as a lithographic draftsman at Dansk Reproduktionsanstalt in Copenhagen during this period.
The Copenhagen years were decisive for his artistic identity. He became a founding member of the Danish artist association Koloristerna and participated in their exhibitions during the 1930s alongside Swedish and Danish peers who shared a belief in pure colour as the primary vehicle of pictorial expression. When he returned to Sweden in 1932 he brought that chromatic sensibility with him, applying it to the Skåne landscape, city views, and quiet interior scenes. Study trips to Paris in 1921, Dresden in 1922, Italy in 1952, and France and Spain in 1953 kept his eye open to European developments well into old age.
He was a founding member of the Skåne Artists' Association and of the Malmö-based group Aura. His exhibition career was substantial: he debuted in Sweden at Malmö Art Gallery in 1918 and held solo shows at Malmö Town Hall (1920), Kronhuset in Lund (1928, 1948, 1955), Malmö Museum (1935), SDS-hallen in Malmö (1943, 1951), Killbergs konstgalleri in Helsingborg (1950), and Landskrona Museum (1950). He participated in the Swedish-Danish group exhibitions of The Colourists during 1932-1934, and showed with Skåne Artists at Liljevalchs konsthall in Stockholm in 1951. His work ranges across oil on panel, tempera, pastel, and watercolour, with subjects running from the Skåne coast and inland lakes to studio interiors and portraits.
Holmgren's work is represented in the collections of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Malmö Museum, Lund University Art Museum, and the public collections of Tomelilla and Borås. On the Auctionist platform, all 13 tracked lots are categorised as paintings, passing through Skanes Auktionsverk, Siko in Kristianstad, Karlstad Hammarö Auktionsverk, Limhamns Auktionsbyrå, and Garpenhus. Realised prices in the database range from 100 to 400 SEK, and a further lot reached 300 EUR at Siko, confirming a modest but geographically spread market interest. His dated works from the 1920s through the 1940s attract the most consistent attention.