Carl Johan Billmark

Carl Johan Billmark (photo)

Carl Johan Billmark (born January 28, 1804 in Stockholm , † November 1870 in Paris ) was a Swedish lithographer , engraver and draftsman . His best-known works include the panorama of Stockholm from the balloon , printed in Paris in 1868, and From Stockholm to Gothenburg. Picturesque views of the Göthakanal and its surroundings from 1843. He died under unexplained circumstances during the Franco-Prussian War in the run-up to the Paris Commune in November 1870 during the siege of Paris, so that the exact time of his death cannot be given.

Life

CJ Billmark after a drawing by Maria Röhl (1840)

Billmark worked as a salesman for a few years before becoming a pupil of the engraver Christian Didrik Forssell in 1822. In 1827 he left Forssell's studio to train in lithography . His works Etudes for landscape painters ( Etyder för landskapstecknare , 1828–30) and Scottish views ( Skotska vyer , 1830–1832) showed his aptitude for the newly chosen branch of art. In 1833 he left Sweden and moved to Paris, where he lived until his death. In the same year he became an apprentice to the well-known French painter, watercolorist and lithographer Isidore Laurent Deroy . From Paris he made several trips to Germany in the Rhine Valley in 1836 (including colored lithographs of the Andernach Old Krahn , the Drachenfels, the Rheineck Castle, a view of Cologne under the title Rhenströmmen ( The Rhine River )), to Switzerland , to Italy 1837–1838 , to the French provinces in 1839 and to his native Sweden in 1840. The Swedish National Museum has many of his drawings and sketches from this period. In the years 1840-1870 Billmark stayed in his home country Sweden for a total of 12 months, as in 1840 (journey along the Göthakanal), 1852, 1860 and 1864, when he spent the summer in Stockholm and created the panorama. He mostly drew tourists, landscapes and buildings, which he then lithographed in Paris. In 1843 his work Von Stockholm nach Götheborg was published in Stockholm . Picturesque views of the Göthakanal and its surroundings with impressive views of the Trollhätte Canal . 1853-1855 he published Gripsholm , which made him famous in Sweden.

In 1860 Billmark was elected a member of the Royal Academy for the Liberal Arts ( Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna ) in Stockholm. King Oscar I valued Billmark's art very much and arranged for the Swedish parliament to award him an annual state annuity of 800 Swedish riksdaler ( riksdaler , Swedish currency based on the German model since 1604, officially 1776–1873) in 1862 . In 1864 he made the acquaintance of the French ballooning pioneer Gaspard-Félix Tournachon called Nadar , who made the first aerial photographs for archaeological purposes. Billmark learned to draw aerial panoramas from the anchored balloon. For the Stockholm panorama he stood in a balloon over Bredablick (30 m high octagonal brick tower) in Skansen . In Paris he made the final drawing of the Stockholm panorama based on the sketches and photographs and lithographed it. At Lemercier & Cie. it went to press in 1868. Some of the few that have survived are kept in the Royal Library and the Stockholm City Museum .

Alongside Michael Gustaf Anckarswärd (1792–1878), Carl Johan Billmark is considered to be the greatest lithographer in Sweden.

Billmark's Stockholm panorama from 1868

CJ Billmark's Stockholm panorama from 1868 in linear perspective. The vanishing point is - visible as a pinprick - above the horizon slightly to the right of the center.

gallery

Bremen town hall 1850
Skeppsbron in Gamla Stan 1860
Byström's villa in Djurgården 1860
Gripsholm Castle 1850

Lithographs and drawings by Billmark

Tjugo Vuer Af Rhenströmmen Från Cöln Till Mainz . Lemercier, Paris; Hoerbergska, Stockholm 1837 digitized
From Stockholm to Gothenburg. Picturesque views of the Götha Canal and its surroundings ( Från Stockholm till Götheborg. Pittoreska Vyer från Götha Kanal och dess närheter . Förlag Albert Bonnier, Stockholm 1843)

Picturesque journey from Stockholm to Naples , 1852

Stockholm's picturesque surroundings: Djurgården

Gripsholm , 1853-1855

Sweden, watercolors, lithographs and clay prints , 1853–1866 (views and interiors of Stockholm, Uppsala , Sigtuna , Gripsholm Castle and Skokloster Castle )

Panorama of Stockholm from the balloon , 1868.

Le château royal d'Ulriksdal , 1870 ( The Ulriksdal Royal Castle , commissioned by King Charles XV. )

literature

Per Kallstenius: Minne och vision: Stockholms stadsutveckling i dåtid, nutid och framtid . Max Ström, Stockholm 2010, ISBN 91-7126-192-3 ( Memory and Vision: Stockholm's Urban Development in the Past, Present and Future )

Swedish artist lexicon ( Svenskt konstnärslexikon ). Stockholm 1953, Volume II, p. 180.

Billmark, Karl Johan . In: Bernhard Meijer (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 3 : Bergsvalan – Branstad . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1905, Sp. 400 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

Commons : Carl Johan Billmark - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

↑ Panorama över Stockholm från luftballong 1868, färglitografi. Förvarad på Kungliga biblioteket. (Panorama of Stockholm from the balloon, 1868; color lithograph. Exhibited in the Royal Library ).

personal data
SURNAME	Billmark, Carl Johan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Billmark, Karl Johan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swedish painter, draftsman, engraver and lithographer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 28, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH	Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH	November 1870
Place of death	Paris

[1] Panorama över Stockholm från luftballong 1868, färglitografi. Förvarad på Kungliga biblioteket. (Panorama of Stockholm from the balloon, 1868; color lithograph. Exhibited in the Royal Library ).