Richard Bergh

Photographic portrait of Bergh with palette and brushes from 1904, author unknown

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 was in charge of the Swedish National Museum from 1915 until his death .

With his works and writings he is considered to be one of the main representatives of national romanticism in Sweden.

Life

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

From 1877 Bergh was a student of Edvard Perséus , in whose school he met Karl Nordström , Nils Kreuger , Johan Krouthén and Oscar Björck . The following year he moved to the Kungliga Konstakademien . Like many Swedish artists of his time, Bergh went to France to take a painting course. His stay there began in 1881. In the summer he stayed in Normandy, Brittany or, like most other Swedish artists, in Grez-sur-Loing while he spent the winters in Paris. There he attended both the Académie Colarossi and the studio of Jean-Paul Laurens '.

Bergh was a regular participant in the Paris Salon . In 1883 he took part for the first time, with Bastien-Lepage , Cazin and Whistler exhibiting alongside him . In the Salon in 1883 he received a third class medal for the Kreuger portrait. He exhibited Slutad séance in the salon the following year. In 1884 he also returned to Sweden, where he became part of the artistic opposition movement that resulted in the Konstnärsförbundet . However, he continued to participate in the Salon, where he exhibited Mot aftonen in 1885 and Hypnotisk seans in 1887 . In 1886 he was secretary in Konstnärsförbundet. He directed the exhibition “Från Seinens strand” (1885) with Ernst Josephson . He was responsible for the Swedish art contribution to the Paris World Exhibition in 1889 .

In 1885 he married Helena Maria Klemming († June 1889), who often stood as a model for his pictures, for example in 1885 as a fiancé and the following year as a wife with a sewing work in front of a blazing stove ( Min hustru , Göteborgs Konstmuseum , Bergh's contribution to the Parisian Salon 1886 and the World Exhibition 1889). But she is also the girl in the picture Flickan och Döden (1888, Waldemarsudde ) and the patient in the painting Konvalescent (1886, Waldemarsudde).

Bergh believed that favorable social circumstances, rather than talent, led someone to become an artist. For this reason, too, he supported the establishment of a free painting school within the framework of the artists' association. The Konstnärförbundets målarskola existed from 1890 to 1908. After the death of his first wife, he married Gerda Ingeborg (née Winkrans; 1864-1919) in 1890. With her he also met Ellen Key .

In the 1890s he was one of the national romantics around Prinz Eugen . Together with his childhood friends Nils Kreuger and Karl Nordström, he founded the Varbergsskolan , while all three lived with their families in Varberg from 1893 to 1896 . He spent the winter of 1897/98 with his wife in Italy, where he met Prinz Eugen and the painter couple Hanna and Georg Pauli in Florence .

Afterwards he returned to Stockholm. From 1915 he held the post of governor of the Swedish National Museum .

Bergh was buried in the churchyard in Tyresö .

plant

While Bergh's pictures from the 1880s were more realistic, including the portraits of his friends and colleagues Nils Kreuger and Julia Beck , his works from the 1890s are representative of Swedish national romanticism. B. Riddaren och Jungfrun and Nordisk Sommarkväll .

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

The collection in Waldemarsudde, which goes back to Prince Eugen, has around twenty major works by Bergh in its holdings. In 2002 he was given another solo exhibition there.

image	year	description
	1883	Portrait av Nils Kreuger , oil on canvas, State Art Museum, Copenhagen, Participation in the Paris Salon 1883
	1884	Slutad séance , oil on canvas, Malmö museum Participation in the Paris Salon 1884
	1889	Konstnärinnan Eva Bonnier , oil on canvas, Swedish National Museum, Stockholm
	1894
	1889-1900	Nordisk Sommarkväll , oil on canvas, Göteborgs konstmuseum
	1903	Konstnärsförbundets styrelse , oil on canvas, Swedish National Museum Stockholm, after a photograph by Tekla Nordström
	1905	Portrait av August Strindberg , oil on canvas, Bonnierska portraitsamling in Nedre Manilla , Djurgården , Stockholm
	1905	Portrait of Karl Warburg , oil on canvas, Göteborgs konstmuseum
	1909	Portrait av Gustaf Fröding , oil on canvas, Bonnierska portratsamling

Fonts

Bergh wrote many articles for the Svea and Nornan folk calendars , but was also a regular contributor to Ord och Bild . Some of his writings have been published as anthologies.

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

literature

• Hans Henrik Brummer: Richard Bergh. Ett konstnärskall. Stockholm 2002, ISBN 91-7203-477-7 .
• Gate Hedberg: Richard Bergh. En study. Stockholm 1903.
• Birgitta Rapp: Richard Bergh. Konstnär and cultural politician 1890–1915. Stockholm 1978, ISBN 91-29-52741-4 .

Web links

Commons : Richard Bergh  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Michelle Facos: Richard Bergh's Nordic Summer Evening: Cultural Differences in Interpretation. (PDF) In: Konsthistorisk Tidskrift / Journal of Art History History. 1992, Volume 61, Issue 4, pp. 152-160. doi: 10.1080 / 00233609208604319

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bergh, Johan Edvard . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 1 : A-K . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 77 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Richard Bergh - national romantic och portrait picture. April 13 - September 1, 2002. ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Text about the exhibition on the Waldemarsudde website. 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Michelle Facos: Nationalism and the Nordic imagination: Swedish art of the 1890s. University of California Press, Berkeley / London / Los Angeles 1998, ISBN 0-520-20626-6 , p. 106.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Pontus Grate: Richard Bergh. In: National Museum Stockholm (ed.): 1880-tal i nordiskt måleri. Stockholm 1986, pp. 62-69, p. 62.
5. ^ Pontus ridges: Richard Bergh. In: National Museum Stockholm (ed.): 1880-tal i nordiskt måleri. Stockholm 1986, pp. 62-69, p. 64.
6. ^ Georg Nordensvan : Richard Bergh . In: Svensk konst och svenska konstnärer i nittonde århundradet . Ny, Grundligt omarbetad upplaga - New, thoroughly revised edition. tape 2 : II. Från Karl XV till sekelslutet . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1928, p. 281 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
7. ↑ Bergh, Sven Richard . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 1 : A-K . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 77-78 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
8. ↑ ^{a b} Markus Forslund: Richard Bergh . (PDF; 1.4 MB) p. 2.
9. ↑ Barbara Miller Lane: An Introduction to Ellen Key's "Beauty in the Home". In: Modern Museum of Art (Ed.): Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts. Pp. 19–31, p. 24.
10. ↑ Åsa Axberg: Varbergsskolan ( Memento of the original from August 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . on the website of the Hallands kulturhistoriska museum .
11. ↑ List of exhibitions since 1866 on the National Museum's website ( Memento des Originals from September 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 493 kB) 
12. ↑ Entry Richard Bergh ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the Waldemarsudde website. 
13. ^ Michelle Facos : Nationalism and the Nordic imagination: Swedish Art of the 1890s. Berkeley / London / Los Angeles 1998, ISBN 0-520-20626-6 , p. 105.