Henrik Axel Kulle (22 March 1846 – 27 February 1908) was a Swedish painter who specialized in

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

scenes.

Biography

Kulle was born in

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

, Sweden. His father was a brewer and innkeeper. His older brother, Jakob Kulle (1838–1898) was also a painter and his younger brother, Sven Kulle (1860-1945) was a

medalist A medalist (or medallist) is an artist who designs medals, plaquettes, badges, metal medallions, coins and similar small works in relief in metal. Historically, medalists were typically also involved in producing their designs, and were usually e ...

. He was apprenticed to a local painter. In 1865, enrolled at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts where he studied until 1872. He returned to Lund the following year and was able to sell some paintings to the local Art Society. In 1875, he left home for

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

, where he studied with Swedish-German genre painter

Ferdinand Fagerlin Ferdinand Julius Fagerlin (5 February 1825 - 19 March 1907) was a Swedish-German genre painter. Biography Born in Stockholm, Fagerlin first apprenticed as a shipbuilder (1842–1843) before attending the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts (1845–18 ...

. He introduced Kulle to the Düsseldorf School work. In 1877, Kulle sent home a painting, "The Church Council in

Skåne Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne C ...

", that was bought by the

Nationalmuseum Nationalmuseum (or National Museum of Fine Arts) is the national gallery of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm. The museum's operations stretches far beyond the borders of Blasieholmen, the nationalmuseum manag ...

. In 1880, he received a scholarship from the Dahlgrenska Foundation () in Strömstad and moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He remained there for three years, painting en

plein aire ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

and developing a brighter color scheme. When he returned to Sweden, he continued to paint genre scenes, but also created portraits and still-lifes. In 1885, he was one of the signatories to a document drawn up by the group known as the opponents ( Opponenterna), a group of 85 artists who opposed the teaching methods at the Royal Academy and were in favour of modernisation. Despite this, in 1887 he was named a representative member of the Royal Academy and began teaching there. From then until 1892, he also gave private drawing and painting lessons. From 1891, he was accredited to teach the drawing of ancient artefacts (). The artist, Rikard Lindström (1882–1943), one of his last students, recalled him in his old age as a man who always dressed very formally and said as little as possible. Kulle died in Stockholm in 1908. His works may be seen at the Nationalmuseum,

Göteborgs konstmuseum Gothenburg Museum of Art ( sv, Göteborgs konstmuseum) is located at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg, Sweden. It claims to be the third largest art museum in Sweden by size of its collection. Collections The museum holds the world's finest collect ...

, Lunds universitets konstmuseum and the Kulturhistoriska museet in Lund.

References

External links

Biography
from the ''Nordisk familjebok'' @

Project Runeberg Project Runeberg ( sv, Projekt Runeberg) is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded ...

Konstnärslexikonett Amanda, Henrik Axel Kulle.

More works by Kulle
@ ArtNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Kulle, Axel 1846 births 1908 deaths Swedish painters Swedish genre painters People from Lund