The motif is taken from lake Svarttjärn in Fryksände parish north of Torsby, a small town in the province of Värmland in Sweden. In the summer of 1902, Arosenius travelled...
The motif is taken from lake Svarttjärn in Fryksände parish north of Torsby, a small town in the province of Värmland in Sweden.
In the summer of 1902, Arosenius travelled with his friend and future brother-in-law, the architect and furniture designer Ernst Spolén, from Gothenburg to his parents' home in Torsby. Spolén was to marry Ivar's sister Ingegerd in 1906.
In the bohemian circle in Gothenburg, in which Arosenius played an important role, there were also female artists, including the actress Ester Sahlin (1881-1959). With her upbeat, positive personality, she became a counterbalance to the group's destructive side and won the hearts of several of the male members. But it was with Arosenius that she began a relationship. During the time the two were a couple and for some time afterwards, Ester Sahlin was Arosenius' most recurring subject. In both the good and difficult moments of the relationship, she was depicted, tenderly loving or cold and bitter. The paintings of loneliness as longing for love were created almost exclusively during Arosenius' relationship with Ester Sahlin, in the years 1902 and 1903.
During his stay in Torsby in the summer of 1902, Arosenius painted the watercolor Värmland and Skåne [Scania], his most typical image of longing for love, the one for the unattainable woman (fig. 2). The picture, which depicts Arosenius and Ester Sahlin, was sent from Värmland with a letter to Sahlin, who was in Scania at the time. In the foreground of the painting, Arosenius is depicted half-lying and crying, stretching out his hand towards Sahlin. However, she is on the other side of a body of water and walks away from the artist, apparently without seeing him. In the image, the water is presented as a marker for distance in a very clear way. The distance between them is further reinforced by the text, on Arosenius' shore it says Värmland and on Sahlins Skåne. Arosenius' beach lies in the shade and is overgrown with thistles and nettles, the weeping artist himself is dressed entirely in black. Sahlin, on the other hand, wanders across a flower-filled meadow bathed in sunshine. In the image, her red dress becomes a symbol of love. The white waterlilies that grow by the shore where Sahlin stands are yet another interesting detail. The white waterlily could have several different meanings in the symbolic language that emerged within the symbolist tradition of the 1890s. The most common meaning, and the one that best contributes to the understanding of this work, is the water lily as a symbol of a sexuality linked to the female attraction. The inclusion of the water lilies in the image thus means that the longing for love that is depicted should not be seen as purely spiritual but also with an erotic undertone. In the images of loneliness as longing for love and as vulnerability, a hopelessness and an inability to connect with strong kinship to the writer Gustaf Fröding, a native pf the province of Värmland, are often expressed. The despairing artist's alienation in Fröding is mixed in Arosenius with Friedrich Nietzsche's ideal of genius, where alienation becomes a necessity and a pride. Nietzsche's influence is most clearly felt during the first part of Arosenius' bohemian period, the years up to and including 1903, while the influences from Fröding remain throughout his entire artistry.
