Kilian Christoffer Zoll (20 September 1818 9 November 1860) was a Swedish painter, graphic artist and illustrator in the style of the

Düsseldorf School 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 ...

. He created

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, landscapes, altarpieces and portraits.

Biography

Zoll was born in the parish of Hyllie in

Malmöhus Malmöhus is a neighbourhood of Malmö, situated in the Borough of Centrum, Malmö Municipality, Scania County (formerly Malmöhus County), Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographic ...

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

, Sweden. He was the son of Nils Fredrik Zoll and Catarina Christina Knutsson. His father was a lieutenant in the Swedish Army. He initially attended Malmö Læromsskola in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

, but interrupted his course work to study art in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. From 1836 to 1849, he studied at the

Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts ( sv, Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna), commonly called the Royal Academy, is located in Stockholm, Sweden. An independent organization that promotes the development of painting, sculpture, architec ...

with Fredric Westin, Per Krafft and

Carl Johan Fahlcrantz Carl Johan Fahlcrantz (29 November 1774 - 29 November 1861) was a Swedish painter. Biography He was born in the Stora Tuna Parish of Dalarna, Sweden. He was the son of Johan Fahlcrantz and Gustafva De Brenner. His father was a vicar in Kungså ...

, but found it necessary to suspend his work there on several occasions so he could paint and sell portraits to support his education. While at the Academy, he focused on history painting but, soon after, displayed a preference for scenes from folk life. In pursuit of this goal, from the autumn of 1845 to the spring of 1846 he was enrolled at the

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Billedkunst Skolerne) has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Dani ...

in Copenhagen, where he studied with

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (2 January 1783 – 22 July 1853) was a Danish painter. He was born in Blåkrog in the Southern Jutland region of Denmark. He went on to lay the foundation for the period of art known as the Golden Age of Dani ...

and was inspired by the lectures of

Niels Laurits Høyen Niels Laurits Andreas Høyen (4 June 1798 – 29 April 1870) is considered to be the first Danish art historian and critic. He promoted a Danish nationalistic art through his writings and lectures, and exerted a far reaching effect on contempo ...

. He then visited

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 ...

Halland Halland () is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap''), on the western coast of Götaland, southern Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Brömsebro ...

Småland Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized fo ...

and

Dalarna Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland Värmland () also known a ...

. In 1842, a visit to Botorp in Linderås parish in

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat of Jönköping Municipali ...

resulted in a commission for an altarpiece at Linderås Church (''Linderås kyrka''). During the

First Schleswig War The First Schleswig War (german: Schleswig-Holsteinischer Krieg) was a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question, contesting the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig, ...

, he accompanied the

Kronoberg Regiment The Kronoberg Regiment ( sv, Kronobergs regemente), designations I 11 and I 11/Fo 16, was a Swedish Army infantry regiment that traced its origins back to the 16th century. It was disbanded in 1997. The regiment's soldiers were originally recruite ...

to Denmark, but stopped in Copenhagen when Sweden decided not to enter the war; painting portraits there for several months. From 1852 to 1855, he lived in

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 worked with the history painter,

Theodor Hildebrandt Theodor Hildebrandt (2 July 1804, Stettin29 September 1874, Düsseldorf) was a German artist of the Düsseldorf school of painting who specialized in literary and historical subjects. He was also a noted entomologist. Biography He was a disci ...

and the Norwegian painter,

Adolph Tidemand Adolph Tidemand (14 August 18148 August 1876) was a noted Norwegian romantic nationalism painter. Among his best known paintings are ''Haugianerne'' (''The Haugeans''; 1852) and '' Brudeferd i Hardanger'' (''The Bridal Procession in Hardanger''; ...

. Then he traveled between Sweden and Düsseldorf several times. In 1856 Zoll tried to get a travel grant from the Academy, but was turned down because he was older than the rules allowed. He married in 1857. While once more traveling through Halland on his way to Düsseldorf he fell ill and died in 1860.

Personal life

In 1858, he married Henriette Gustava Horn af Rantzien, who belonged to an old noble family. He had planned to return to Düsseldorf, but fell ill and died while travelling in Halland. Many of his commissioned works were left unfinished at the time of his death. They were completed by his friend,

Bengt Nordenberg Bengt Nordenberg (April 22, 1822 – December 18, 1902) was a Swedish artist. He belonged to the Düsseldorf school of painting and is best known for his genre paintings with everyday life scenes from the Dalarna, Skåne and Blekinge areas of Swe ...

(1822–1902). His works may be seen at the

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 ...

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 ...

Nationalmuseum
/ref> the

Nordiska museet The Nordic Museum ( sv, Nordiska museet) is a museum located on Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm, Sweden, dedicated to the cultural history and ethnography of Sweden from the early modern period (in Swedish history, it is said to begi ...

and

Kulturen Kulturen () is an open air museum in Lund in Lund, Sweden. Occupying two blocks in central Lund, Kulturen is Sweden's and the world's second oldest open-air museum after Skansen in Stockholm. It contains historic buildings, dating from the Midd ...

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 ...

Selected paintings

File:Kilian Zoll-Fäbodflicka.JPG, ''Peasant Girl''
(1850) File:Killian Zoll Women with children in interior.jpg, ''Interior with Women and Children''
(c. 1860) File:Zoll-Midsummer.png, ''Midsummer Dance in

Rättvik Rättvik is a locality on the eastern shore of the lake Siljan and the seat of Rättvik Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden, with 4,686 inhabitants in 2010. Its bandy club IFK Rättvik has reached the highest division Elitserien and has bu ...

''
(1852) File:A Travelling Journeyman (Kilian Zoll) - Nationalmuseum - 19299.tif, ''A Travelling Journeyman''

References

Other sources

Biography
Nordisk Familjebok

Svenskt Biografiskt Handlexikon

External links

More works by Zoll
@ ArtNet
Kilian Zoll
Göteborgs Konstmuseum {{DEFAULTSORT:Zoll, Kilian 1818 births 1860 deaths People from Malmö 19th-century Swedish painters Swedish male painters Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni People from Skåne County 19th-century Swedish male artists Düsseldorf school of painting