Richard Bergh

Sven Richard Bergh ( born December 28, 1858 in Stockholm, † January 29, 1919 in Saltsjö - Storängen ) was a Swedish artist. He was also active in Konstnärsförbundet and had from 1915 been head of the Swedish National Museum until his death.

With his works and writings, he is regarded as one of the main representatives of national romanticism in Sweden.

Life

Richard Bergh was the son of the landscape painter Johan Edvard Bergh (1828-1880) and his wife Amanda Josephina Amalia Helander, who painted also. He grew up in a bourgeois environment.

Since 1877 was Bergh student Edvard Perseus, in whose school he met Karl Nordström, Nils Kreuger, Johan Krouthen and Oscar Björck know. The following year, he moved to the Kungliga Konstakademien. How many Swedish artists of his time also went Bergh to France to be trained in painting. His stay there began in 1881. During the summer he was in Normandy, Brittany or like most other Swedish artists at Grez- sur -Loing while he spent the winter in Paris. There he attended both the Académie Colarossi and the Atelier Jean -Paul Laurens.

Bergh was a regular participant at the Paris Salon. In 1883 he first took part in it, next to him set Bastien -Lepage, Cazin and Whistler from. In the Salon in 1883 he was awarded a medal for the third class Kreuger portrait. Slutad séance he exhibited the following year at the salon. In 1884 he returned to Sweden, where he was part of the artistic opposition movement that culminated in the Konstnärsförbundet. However, he continued to take part in the Salon, where he aftonen Mot 1885 and 1887 Hypnotisk sean exhibited. In Konstnärsförbundet 1886 he was secretary. The exhibition " The Misadventures Seinens beach " (1885 ) he led with Ernst Josephson. For the Swedish art contribution to the Paris World Exposition in 1889, he was responsible.

In 1885 he married Helena Maria Klemming († June 1889 ), often served as a model for his paintings, such as 1885 as a fiancee and in hustru it as a wife with her ​​sewing in front of a blazing furnace (min, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Berghs contribution to the Paris Salon in 1886 and the 1889 World's Fair ). But she is also the girl in the picture Flickan och Döden (1888, Waldemarsudde ) and the patient of the painting Konvalescent (1886, Waldemarsudde ).

Bergh was convinced that more favorable social circumstances as a talent for it caused someone to become an artist. Also for this reason he supported the establishment of a toll-free art school as part of the Artists' Union. The Konstnärförbundets målarskola existed from 1890 to 1908 After the death of his first wife he married in 1890 Gerda Ingeborg (nee Winkrans; 1864-1919 ). . With it, he met Ellen Key.

In the 1890s he was among the National Romantics to Prince Eugene. Together with his childhood friends Nils Kreuger and Karl Nordström he founded the Varbergsskolan, while all three with their families from 1893 to 1896 lived in Varberg. The Winter 1897/98 he spent with his wife in Italy, where he met in Florence at Prinz Eugen and the painter couple Hanna and Georg Pauli.

Afterwards he returned to Stockholm. From 1915 he held the office of överintendent the Swedish National Museum.

Bergh was buried in the churchyard in Tyresö.

Work

While the images Berghs from the 1880s were more realistic, there are mentioned the portraits of his friends and colleagues Nils Kreuger and Julia Beck, his works from the 1890s are representative of the Swedish National Romanticism, such as Riddaren och Jungfrun and Nordisk Sommarkväll.

On the occasion of his death and the 20th anniversary of the death in 1939 were solo exhibitions held at the National Museum.

The collection goes back to Prince Eugene in Waldemarsudde has about twenty major works by Bergh in their inventory. In 2002 he was given there another solo exhibition.

Writings

Bergh has written many articles for the popular calendar Svea and Nornan, but was also regular contributors to the journal Ord och image. His writings have been published in part as anthologies.

• Om const och annat (1908 first and 1919 second edition )
• Efterlämnade Skrifter om och const annat ( posthumously published in 1921 )