KunstenaarSwedish
Bert Håge Häverö
6 actieve items
The artist born Karl Olof Axelsson in 1932 took his working name from a place in Norrtälje municipality, Häverö, that became his spiritual home and the subject he returned to throughout his career. Self-taught from the start, he never passed through an academy but developed a painting practice rooted in close observation of the people, harbours and vessels of the Swedish east coast.
His public debut came in 1972 at the Statens Sjöhistoriska Museum in Stockholm, where the exhibition was titled "Roslagsgubbar och skärgårdsbåtar" (Roslagen Characters and Archipelago Boats). The title said everything about his approach: genre painting inflected with warmth and comedy, anchored in a specific geography. The white steamboats of the Waxholm line, the crowded piers of summer, the laden tables at seasonal celebrations, these became his recurring cast. His style sits in a naivistic-realist register, using bright colour and accessible imagery without ever tipping into sentimentality.
The recognition that followed his debut led to an invitation to represent Sweden at the Prix Suisse de peinture naive internationale in 1984, an international exhibition in Switzerland gathering artists from 85 nations. He received a bronze plaque and an honourable mention there. Later in his career he painted extensively on commission for Swedish emigrants who had settled in the United States, for whom his Stockholm and archipelago scenes served both as precise documents and as reminders of a world left behind.
Beyond oil painting, Häverö produced a substantial body of lithographs, colour prints that brought his imagery to a broader audience and which remain among the most widely circulated of his works. Subjects include Vaxholm, Ljusterö, Östermalms Saluhall, and the horse-trading scenes he depicted with characteristic mischief.
He died in 2013 or 2014 (sources differ by one year), having spent the better part of five decades documenting a coastal Swedish world that was itself changing rapidly around him.
At auction Häverö's market is centred in the Stockholm region. His 71 lots on Auctionist span oils, lithographs and miscellaneous works, with Roslagens Auktionsverk accounting for the largest share, a fitting concentration given his lifelong ties to Norrtälje. Stockholms Auktionsverk at both Sickla and Magasin 5 also handle his work regularly. The top lot on record is the oil "Fiskebåten Monica" at 5,500 SEK, with the lithograph "Ljusterö Stockholms slott" close behind at 3,002 SEK. Prices are accessible, which helps explain the consistent turnover of his work at regional houses.