KunstenaarSwedish
Bertil Lundgren
3 actieve items
Bertil Lundgren was born in 1900 and spent much of his life in and around Nynäshamn, the coastal town south of Stockholm on the Baltic Sea. He died there in 1979, having built a quiet but coherent body of work that remained largely outside the mainstream of Swedish art institutions during his lifetime.
Lundgren worked across a range of media - oil on panel, oil on canvas, pastel chalk on paper, watercolour, gouache, and graphics. Regardless of medium, colour was the central structural element in his work. He allowed motifs to pass through what one writer described as a lyrical filter, where colour rather than form carries the composition. His approach placed him in a tradition of Nordic tonalism and post-impressionist landscape painting, though he never aligned explicitly with any movement.
His subject matter was geographically specific: the harbour areas of Nynäshamn, the coasts of Öland, places like Lövhagen, Järflotta, Torö, and Nicksta. These locations recur across his paintings across several decades - dated works range from the early 1950s through the late 1960s. The Swedish archipelago in winter was a recurring theme, with works depicting ice-break ("Islossning"), snow over fields ("Snö på åker"), and the light of late summer coasts ("Sensommar"). He participated in jury-selected exhibitions in the 1940s, including at C.M. Holmquist in Stockholm, showing he had some presence in the professional art world despite not pursuing public positioning.
Lundgren worked in close artistic proximity to Fritz Holmer and Viktor Tesser, with whom he shared an informal circle centred on the landscapes facing the Baltic Sea. After his death, his sons Orvad, Ove, Rolf and Ryno organised a memorial exhibition at what later became Nynäshamns Savings Bank - a posthumous recognition that brought renewed attention to his work.
Note: The database entry for Bertil Lundgren on Auctionist combines two distinct artists sharing the name - the painter (1900-1979) and a ceramicist (b. 1934) who created stoneware and wall plaques for Rörstrand during the 1970s. Among the 46 lots, 28 are paintings (oils, pastels, watercolours under the 1900-1979 designation) and 18 are ceramics and porcelain (Rörstrand stoneware). Top auction results include a Rörstrand stoneware sculpture at 2,247 SEK and paintings topping around 1,100 SEK. Works have appeared at Stockholms Auktionsverk Magasin 5 (27 lots) and several other Swedish houses.