artist: Charles Portin (Swedish 1889-1980)
medium: gouache on paper
dimensions: 26 x 19 cm art size / 44 x 38 cm framed size (approx)
signed and dated 53
* currently being framed teak stained timber frame with archival mat and back and non-reflective UV glass - due back at the gallery late September 2025. Photos to follow. If purchased in the meantime your order will be fulfilled as soon as this is back at the gallery from our workshop.
AU $1725 (approx US $1150 / 970 EUROS / 168,000 yen / 855 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Karl (Charles) Edvard Portin was a Swedish painter and draftsman, born on 11 October 1889 in Nedertorneå, Norrbotten County. He was the son of Nils Ludvig Portin and Maria Kandelin, and in 1928 he married Hildegard Wiegand.
Portin studied at the Dresden Art School (1910–1911) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Weimar (1911–1914) before continuing his training in Paris with Henri Morisset, Othon Friesz, Henri de Waroquier, Marcel Gromaire, and Fernand Léger. Paris became his main base until the outbreak of the Second World War. His artistic education was complemented by extensive travels, including study trips to London, Vienna, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Egypt, and several longer stays in Italy.
Initially working in pastel, then in oil and watercolour, Portin gradually developed toward non-figurative art. By the 1950s he was experimenting with his own technique in plastic tempera. Critics noted both the precision and lyrical freedom of his compositions. Writing in Expressen (11 November 1952), L. E. Åström observed that in works such as Saraband, Portin achieved a striking harmony of colour through interwoven forms that were “mathematically exact yet improvisatory, culminating in a purely decorative and visually beautiful whole.”
Portin exhibited widely in Sweden and abroad. In Stockholm he held solo exhibitions at Galerie St Lucas in 1944 (together with Ebbe Berg and Sture Lundgren), Louis Hahne’s Art Salon in 1950, and Expo Aleby in 1952. He also showed in Malmö (1945, 1948), Norrköping (1952), Göteborg, Örebro, Linköping, Jönköping, and on multiple occasions in northern cities including Luleå, Kiruna, Östersund, and Haparanda. His international career included solo exhibitions in Florence (1956), Rome (1957), Milan (1958), and Cairo (1959).
During his years in Paris, he frequently participated in the Salon d’Automne, the Salon des Tuileries, and the Salon des Indépendants, and after the war in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles.
Portin’s works are represented in the collections of the Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art) in Stockholm and in the art museums of Norrköping, Örebro, Borås, Gävle, Östersund, and Luleå, as well as in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome and the State Art Museum in Cairo. He was also a member of the Swedish Artists’ National Organization (Konstnärernas Riksorganisation).
He passed away at the age of 90 on 16 January 1980 in Helsingborg.