Ove Olson

At the Académie Scandinave, housed in the Maison Watteau, he studied under Othon Friesz and Charles Dufresne, two painters closely associated with the post-Fauvist current that had transformed French figurative painting in the early decades of the twentieth century. He also worked at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, the open atelier that attracted generations of Scandinavian artists seeking an alternative to the formal academy. Olson absorbed the directness of colour and form these teachers embodied and developed a manner of painting that was confident in its observation of light, people, and the surfaces of the city.

His first solo exhibition, held in Strasbourg in 1934, was well received, and he became a regular presence at the Paris Salon through the following decades. When the Second World War interrupted his career, he volunteered for France and was captured, spending time in Stalag III-A at Luckenwalde. A leg injury eventually led to his repatriation to France, and at the end of hostilities he was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'Honneur for his service.

After the war, Olson resumed his career with notable momentum. He held solo exhibitions in both Paris and Stockholm and was championed in Stockholm by the dealer Gösta Stenman, who had earlier introduced Helene Schjerfbeck to a broader Swedish audience. In Paris, the director of the Institut Tessin, Gunnar Lundberg, was an advocate for his work. The City of Paris awarded him its cultural prize. His paintings entered the collections of the French state, the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Tours, and several provincial French museums, as well as the Institut Tessin.

On the Nordic auction market, Olson's work appears primarily at Swedish regional houses in Skane. Within Auctionist's database, 25 items are recorded, with Garpenhus Auktioner, Markus Auktioner, and Höörs Auktionshall leading in volume. His Parisian subjects - rooftops, street scenes, Notre Dame - dominate the listings. The top result is an oil titled "Tak, Paris" (Rooftop, Paris) at 3,210 SEK, followed by a figurative oil "Suzanne" at 2,013 SEK and a Notre Dame watercolour at 1,458 SEK. Lithographs and exhibition posters for Borstahusens Konstforening also appear regularly, priced between 300 and 650 SEK.