artist: Hans Stridh (Swedish 1893-1957)
dimensions: 46 x 55 cm (approx) / 48 x 57 cm framed (apex)
medium: oil on canvas
signed
circa 1940s/50s
presented in a new off white painted hardwood timber frame
artist biography
Hans Gustaf Stridh was born September 26, 1893 in Borås. He was a Swedish painter and illustrator.
Stridh's main interest from primary school was drawing and he started dreaming of becoming an artist at an early age, but it was only at the age of 25 that he was able to fulfil his dreams. He studied under fellow Swedish artists Birger Simonsson (1883-1938) and Tor Bjurström (1888-1966) at Valands målarskola in Gothenburg from 1919. He stayed in Munich 1922–1923 where he expanded his basic art education through studies for German teachers, then he traveled to Rome where he studied for N Lepinski at the British Academy of Arts in Rome. His stay in Rome came to mean a lot to him both as an artist and a person, and through Lepinski he learned a good lesson in the English watercolour tradition. He lived for a time in 1925 in Anticoli Corrado, which was then a gathering place for the Swedish artists in Italy.
In the mid-1920s, he returned to his hometown of Borås, where he decorated a studio. As a person, Strridh had a very sensitive disposition and was very self-critical, which hampered his contacts with the audience and also contributed to his relatively limited fame outside Borås. He made his debut with a solo exhibition in Borås in 1932 and always remained a rare exhibitor compared to his artist colleagues and he only had two solo exhibitions in Stockholm at Galerie Moderne - one in 1939 and and another in 1945. In Borås he exhibited with Manfred Flyckt in 1935, with Britta Nehrman in 1952, and with Svän Grandin and Gottfrid Källqvist in 1943. He participated in some group exhibitions in Borås and The Sveriges allmänna konstförenings (Swedish General Art Association) autumn exhibition in Stockholm in 1940 and in the Nordic art exhibitions in Gothenburg and Copenhagen in 1941. He participated in the exhibition Boråsare at Gothenburg Art Gallery in 1942 and in a watercolour exhibition at the Konstakademien (Art Academy) in Stockholm in 1947. A memorial exhibition of his art was shown at Borås Art Gallery in 1957.
He is best known for his atmospheric interiors, soft forest scenes, flowering summer meadows, model studies, portraits and still lifes. Examples of Stridh’s work are held in a number of public collections including ones at Borås Art Museum, Norrköping Art Museum, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Gothenburg Museum.
Stridh passed away on April 24, 1957 at the age of 63.