Gunnar Brusewitz

Brusewitz built a career that crossed the boundaries between fine art, illustration and writing with unusual ease. He became a regular contributor to Stockholms-Tidningen, Svenska Dagbladet and Upsala Nya Tidning, developing a graphic sensibility tuned to the popular press while maintaining a parallel life as an exhibiting artist. His primary medium was watercolour, and his subjects ranged across Swedish landscapes, birds in their habitats, Stockholm cityscapes and coastal scenes. The precision of the naturalist and the eye of the painter coexist in his work in a way that is distinctly his own.

From 1968 he appeared in the Swedish Radio Television nature programmes broadcast from Korsnasgrden, succeeding artist Harald Wiberg in a role that brought his work to a broad national audience. In 1980 he joined the Swedish polar expedition Ymer-80 aboard the icebreaker Ymer, travelling through Arctic waters and publishing the resulting book Arktisk sommar the following year.

Among his most sustained commissions was the design of Nobel Prize in Literature diplomas between 1963 and 1988, a quarter-century assignment that demanded both technical precision and the ability to produce work worthy of the occasion year after year. Solo exhibitions took him to London, Helsinki, Turku, Reykjavik, Melbourne, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia. His work is held at the Nationalmuseum and Kalmar Art Museum.

At auction, Brusewitz's work turns up across paintings, graphics, drawings and illustrated books, with 100 lots recorded at Nordic houses. His top price was 2,400 EUR for a Stockholm view from Essingen at Stockholms Auktionsverk, and a consistent cluster of results sits in the 1,600-2,200 SEK range for Stockholm and Dalarna motifs. Stockholms Auktionsverk and Uppsala Auktionskammare together account for over half his lots. The presence of Books and Manuscripts as a distinct category, 14 of 100 lots, reflects how firmly illustration defined his market alongside his paintings.