Einar Nerman

In 1908 he traveled to Paris and studied at the Académie Matisse under Henri Matisse, and at the Académie Colarossi. The experience was formative. He later cited the influence of Japanese printmaking, the Norwegian caricaturist Olaf Gulbransson, and Matisse himself as shaping his early approach. Aubrey Beardsley and the American illustrator Ralph Barton came later. The result was a line-based style of considerable economy: sinuous, decorative, and capable of capturing a personality in a few strokes.

Back in Sweden, he made illustrations for several of Selma Lagerlöf's books, including the children's picture book Crow's Dream (1911) and Stars (1913), as well as drawings for her Short Cavalier stories (1918). In 1921 he moved to London and began contributing a weekly page of theatrical caricatures to The Tatler, alongside work for Eve: The Lady's Pictorial. These drawings of performers at the West End and the Royal Albert Hall circulated widely and established his reputation as one of the more versatile illustrators working in the Art Deco idiom.

In 1936, back in Sweden, he was commissioned to design the label for the Solstickan safety match box. The charity model had been created to funnel a few öre per box toward children in need, and Nerman drew from an illustration of Thumbelina he had made earlier, adapting the figure into a fair-haired boy holding a lit match. The image became one of the most reproduced graphics in Swedish history and remains in use today, largely unchanged. It has been said, with some basis, that the Solstickepojken is the most reproduced artwork ever produced in Sweden.

When World War II forced the family out of Sweden, Nerman relocated to New York, where his existing reputation in illustration circles secured him work almost immediately. The New York Journal-American commissioned him to draw Hollywood celebrities, among his subjects were Joan Crawford, Alfred Hitchcock, Greta Garbo, and Ingrid Bergman. He also contributed to Vogue. He did not return to Sweden until 1950.

Beyond illustration, Nerman worked in painting, still lifes among them, and produced theatrical set and costume designs. His portraits of fellow artists, Isaac Grünewald, Einar Jolin, Arthur Percy, Leander Engström, Birger Simonsson, entered the collection of Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, where they function as a document of the Swedish art world of his generation. He died on March 30, 1983 in Lidingö, at 94.

At auction, Nerman's work covers a broad price range. His oil paintings and mixed-media works attract the strongest interest: a blandteknik work titled Solstickan reached 28,000 SEK, and a group of silver annual medals associated with the Solstickan Foundation sold for 21,011 SEK. A still life in oil brought 6,400 EUR at a Finnish house, reflecting crossover interest beyond Sweden. The record since 2010 stands at approximately 12,290 USD for Isaac och Jolin, Paris 1909, sold at Bukowskis. Works on paper, drawings, and prints are more widely available and more accessible in price. SAV Magasin 5, Metropol, and Bukowskis account for the bulk of his 84 recorded lots on the Swedish market.