Ernst Josephson Swedish, 1851-1906
The Viking (Vikingen), 1895
pen and brown ink on laid paper watermarked 'lessebo'
38.2 x 23.8 cm
15 x 9 3/8 in
15 x 9 3/8 in
Copyright The Artist
The present drawing relates to Ernst Josephson’s extensive suite of illustrations to Erik Gustaf Geijer’s “Skaldestycken” (Poems). An excerpt pasted to the former backing board—citing the 1966 Svalans Lyrikklubb /...
The present drawing relates to Ernst Josephson’s extensive suite of illustrations to Erik Gustaf Geijer’s “Skaldestycken” (Poems). An excerpt pasted to the former backing board—citing the 1966 Svalans Lyrikklubb / Albert Bonniers Förlag edition—records that in 1940 “close to seventy” sheets from this series were still in the possession of the Stockholm dealer Gösta Stenman, kept in a folded Lessebo sheet inscribed by Josephson in flourished lettering: “Skaldestycken af Erik Gustaf Geijer illustrerade af Ernst Josephson 1895”.
The same text notes that Josephson may originally have intended the text of Geijer’s poems to be interleaved with drawings: before the material was split up, both Manhem and Vikingen existed written out on the same watermarked Lessebo paper (23.5 × 38 cm) as the drawings. The present sheet corresponds to one of Josephson’s two known drawings for Geijer’s poem “Vikingen”. It depicts a youth seated on a rocky ledge by the sea, watching goats—described as an illustration to the line “Att vakta gettren blev dagen mig lång” (“To watch the goats made the day long for me”).
The same text notes that Josephson may originally have intended the text of Geijer’s poems to be interleaved with drawings: before the material was split up, both Manhem and Vikingen existed written out on the same watermarked Lessebo paper (23.5 × 38 cm) as the drawings. The present sheet corresponds to one of Josephson’s two known drawings for Geijer’s poem “Vikingen”. It depicts a youth seated on a rocky ledge by the sea, watching goats—described as an illustration to the line “Att vakta gettren blev dagen mig lång” (“To watch the goats made the day long for me”).
Provenance
Gösta Stenman, last recorded in his inventory in 1940;Sten Lindeberg, physician and art collector, Stockholm;
Private Collection