ArtistSwedish
Manfred Flyckt
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Oskar Manfred Flyckt was born on August 2, 1893 in Seglora, a small parish in Västergötland, and spent most of his life tied to the region around Borås. His path to painting was anything but direct - he worked as a forest worker and farmer well into adulthood, teaching himself to draw and paint from 1912 before seeking formal instruction. That practical grounding in rural life would shape everything he painted.
His training came in stages. He studied under John Hedæus in Borås in 1913, then attended Althin's School of Painting in Stockholm until 1915. Between 1916 and 1918 he studied at the Royal Institute of Art under Oscar Björk and Alfred Bergström, two central figures in Swedish academic painting of the period. A study trip to Paris in 1939 broadened his perspective, though it did not fundamentally redirect his attachment to the Sjuhärad countryside.
Flyckt debuted publicly with an exhibition in Borås in 1916 and went on to participate in solo and group shows throughout his career, including exhibitions at Nordic Art in Gothenburg and Nordic Art in Aarhus. He was also a member of the artist collective Klicken. By the 1920s he had become, alongside Hans Strålin and Sven Grandin, one of the key figures in a distinctly local, coloristically inclined school that developed in the Borås region - a school that placed particular emphasis on the texture of Västergötland's rolling farms and forests rather than on urban or international currents.
His subjects were consistently rooted in his surroundings: old farm buildings, livestock in stables, wooded landscapes, and flower still lifes, all handled with what contemporaries described as breadth and massiveness in composition. His portrayals of West Gothian farms carried an evident empathy for a way of life he had personally known. He worked primarily in oil on canvas and panel, and also produced drawings and prints.
Flyckt's work entered several major Swedish collections during his lifetime, including Moderna museet in Stockholm, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Vänersborg Regional Museum, Skara Museum, and the private collection of King Gustav VI Adolf. He died on October 29, 1956 in Borås.
On the auction market, Flyckt appears primarily at regional Swedish houses. Borås Auktionshall accounts for the largest share of his 13 recorded lots in our database, followed by Auctionet and Göteborgs Auktionsverk. Works range from modest farm scenes at a few hundred SEK up to a flower still life (Blomsterstilleben) that achieved 7,200 SEK in November 2025. An oil on canvas also sold for approximately 1,946 EUR at a Finnish house in December 2025, suggesting interest beyond the Swedish regional market. Paintings on panel (pannå) appear most frequently, alongside oil on canvas.