Ernst Abraham Josephson (1851-1906) was a Swedish painter and poet. He specialized in portraits,
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 f ...
scenes of folklife and folklore.
Background
He was born to a middle-class family of merchants of Jewish ancestry. His uncle,
Ludvig Josephson
Ludvig Oskar Josephson (20 February 1832—29 January 1899) was a Swedish dramatist, actor and theatre manager.
Biography
Ludvig Josephson was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He was the son of Jewish merchant Salomon Josephson and Beata Levin. He was ...
(1832-1899) was a dramatist and his uncle Jacob Axel Josephson (1818-1880) was a composer.
When he was ten, his father Ferdinand Semy Ferdinand Josephson (1814-1861) left home and he was raised by his mother, Gustafva Jacobsson
(1819-1881) and three older sisters.
Career
With his family's support, Josephson began to pursue art professionally at the age of sixteen, enrolling at the
Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. His primary instructors there were
Johan Christoffer Boklund and
August Malmström. He was there until 1876, when he received a Royal Medal for painting.
After leaving the academy, he and his friend and fellow artist
Severin Nilsson (1846-1918) visited Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, where they studied the works of the
. A major breakthrough in his artistic career occurred in Paris, where he studied with
Jean-Léon Gérôme at the
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...
. He soon began concentrating on portraits, many of which depicted his peers and fellow Swedes in France. For a time, he shared a studio with
Hugo Birger (1854–1887). Josephson's artistic style developed further during a trip to
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...
with his friend,
Anders Zorn, from 1881 to 1882.
Josephson's private life was tumultuous, however; by his late twenties, he was affected by
syphilis
Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium '' Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, a ...
- his romantic life suffering as a result; Josephson was forced to discontinue pursuing a relationship with young model, Ketty Rindskopf.
In the 1880s, a painting that is now considered one of his masterpieces, ''Strömkarlen'' (1882-1884) was rejected 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 manage ...
. It was eventually purchased by
Prince Eugen (1865-1947), himself a skilled amateur artist and art patron, who displayed the piece at his home,
Waldemarsudde on Djurgården, in Stockholm. Waldemarsudde has since become a museum, housing in its collection ten additional oil paintings and a large number of drawings attributed to Josephson.
Josephson was deeply affected by his mother's death in 1881, though had found respite when, in 1883, he had obtained the patronage of
Pontus Furstenberg
Pontus or Pontos may refer to:
* Short Latin name for the Pontus Euxinus, the Greek name for the Black Sea (aka the Euxine sea)
* Pontus (mythology), a sea god in Greek mythology
* Pontus (region), on the southern coast of the Black Sea, in modern ...
(1827-1902), a wealthy merchant and art collector. In 1885, he became a supporter of the "
Opponenterna", a group that was protesting the outmoded teaching methods at the Swedish Academy, but his interest in the group diminished when he failed to win election to their governing board.
By the summer of 1888, he was beginning to suffer delusions and hallucinations, brought on by the progression of his illness. Residing on the
Île-de-Bréhat in
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
, where he had spent the previous summer with painter and engraver
Allan Österlind
Erik Allan August Österlind (2 November 1855, Stockholm - 23 June 1938, Juvisy-sur-Orge) was a Swedish painter and engraver who spent most of life in France.
Biography
He was born to a family of the Swedish nobility and his father was a whol ...
(1855-1938) and his family, he became involved in
spiritism
Spiritism (French: ''spiritisme''; Portuguese: ''espiritismo'') is a spiritualist, religious, and philosophical doctrine established in France in the 1850s by the French teacher, educational writer, and translator Hippolyte Léon Denizard R ...
, possibly inspired by Österlind's interest in occult phenomena. While in his visionary states, he wrote poems and created paintings that he signed with the names of dead artists. Some of his best known and most influential works were created during this period.
Shortly after, Österlind took him back to Sweden and he was admitted to , a mental institution in
Uppsala
Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Located north of the ca ...
. He remained there for several months. The diagnosis was
paranoia
Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy c ...
, but his condition would now most likely be called
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...
. After being released, he continued to associate with his old friends, who did what they could to help him. His paintings had become rather distorted, but his earlier works were shown at exhibitions in Paris and Berlin, thanks to arrangements made by
Richard Bergh
Sven Richard Bergh (28 December 1858 – 29 January 1919) was a Swedish painter, art critic and museum manager. Despite many years in France, he remained unattracted to Impressionism, preferring instead the Naturalism of painters such as Jule ...
and
Georg Pauli, and he received several medals for them. As the years progressed, his physical health declined. First he developed rheumatic problems, which prevented him from painting. Then he was diagnosed with diabetes, which was the cause of his death in 1906.
Legacy
A street, "Ernst Josephsons väg" in
Södra Ängby
Södra Ängby is a residential area blending functionalism with garden city ideals, located in western Stockholm, Sweden, forming part of the Bromma borough.
Encompassing more than 500 buildings, it remains the largest coherent functionalistic ...
is named after him. His works may be seen at 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 manage ...
,
Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde
Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde ( Swedish for ''Cape Waldemar''), is a museum located on Djurgården in central Stockholm. The name is composed of Waldemar, an Old German noble male name, and udde, meaning cape. It is derived from a historical name ...
and the
Göteborgs konstmuseum.
Gallery
File:Ernst Josephson - Spanish Blacksmiths - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Spanish Blacksmiths'' (1881)
File:Ernst Josephson 002.jpg, ''Portrait of Jeanette Rubenson'' (1883)
File:The Postmaster of Bréhat (Ernst Josephson) - Nationalmuseum - 21172.tif, '' Postmaster of Bréhat'' (1888)
File:Ernst Josephson-Gaslisa.jpg, ''Gåslisa'' (1888–1890)Gåslisa
@ Project Runeberg
File:Ernst Josephson-Leende.jpg, ''Smile'' (1890)
File:Ecstatic Heads (Ernst Josephson) - Nationalmuseum - 20657.tif, ''Ecstatic Heads''
(after 1890)
References
Further reading
*Ulf Abel; (2004) ''Ernst Josephson'', "De stora mästarna" series, Nationalmuseum
*Hans Henrik Brummer, (1991) ''Ernst Josephson: målare, romantiker och symbolist'', Carlsson/Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde
*Knut Evers and Ingrid Mesterton, (1990) ''Ernst Josephson och Fänrik Stål'', Samf. Sverige-Finland
External links
More works by Josephson@ ArtNet
* Georg Pauli, ''E. Josephson: en studie'' (1902
Online@
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 ...
* ''Svarta rosor'', Poems by Josephson (1888
Online@ Project Runeberg
*
Richard Bergh
Sven Richard Bergh (28 December 1858 – 29 January 1919) was a Swedish painter, art critic and museum manager. Despite many years in France, he remained unattracted to Impressionism, preferring instead the Naturalism of painters such as Jule ...
, "Målaren Ernst Josephson" (1893) in
Online@ Project Runeberg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Josephson, Ernst
19th-century Swedish painters
Swedish male painters
20th-century Swedish painters
Swedish portrait painters
Swedish Jews
1851 births
1906 deaths
Outsider artists
Artists from Stockholm
Swedish male writers
Swedish male poets
19th-century Swedish poets
19th-century male writers
Drawing mediums
19th-century Swedish male artists
20th-century Swedish male artists