artist: Albert Abbe (Swedish 1889-1966)
medium: oil on panel
dimensions: 44 1/2 x 32 cm frame size (approx)
signed
circa 1940s/50s
presented in its original frame with wear and patina commensurate with age
AU $780 (approx US $505 / 460 EUROS / 71,500 yen / 395 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
** Currently on show and for sale at Danish Red - 1214 High Street Armadale VIC
artist bio
Albert Abbe was born 10 June 1889 in Helsingborg. He was a Swedish painter and a member of the artist group the De Tolv (The Twelve).
Abbe first trained as professional house painter and studied at the Technical School in Helsingborg, but soon after decided he wanted to be an artist. He began studting at Caleb Althin's målarskola (painting school) in Stockholm. He studied in Paris at the Académie Colarossi under André Lhote, in Berlin in 1909 and in Paris in 1910 and was an early representative of modernism in Scania. After a more experimental youth period, he switched to a naturalistic painting with broad brushwork and high colouring, in which the influence of international expressionism was clear. He has painted a number of scenes from the area of Glumslöv in Skåne, preferably often with figures. His earlier works from the 1910s were strongly inspired by expressionism and cubism. His later work was more traditional landscape painting, mainly from the Scania region of Sweden.
Abbe was a member of De Tolv (The Twelve) - a group of modernist artists who all came from Scania (with the exception of one - Jules Schyl who was born in Denmark), and born between 1880 and 1900. The members united in 1921 in Paris, where they had studied at the Académie Colarossi art school . Several of the group's members had also studied under the French artist André Lhôte . The name followed the artist group De Åtta (The Eight) including Isaac Grünewald, Sigrid Hjertén and Einar Jolin which had been formed in 1912. The Twelve consisted of Abbe plus Svante Bergh, Tora Vega Holmström, Johnan Johansson, Emil Johanson-Thor, Ivar Johnson, Anders Jonsson, Nils Mollerberg, Emil Olsson, Jules Schyl, Pär Siegård, Jürgen Wrangel (and Erik Jönsson who replaced Wrangel in 1925). The group held its first joint exhibition at the Malmö museum in 1924 and had great success with it. The group ran until 1934. In 2004, a retrospective exhibition was held at the Malmö Art Museum.
Abbe is represented at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Malmö Art Museum, Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, and the Helsingborgs Museum and Landskrona Museum.
He passed away at the age of 76 on 7 February, 1966 in Glumslöv, Skåne.