National Museum of Sweden, Part 1 - Eugene Jansson

Our first stop was Stockholm, mainly because it was the least expensive city to fly into.  (No one will call it the least expensive city for any other reason.)  The Nationalmuseum Sveriga or Swedish National Museum is a must on any art lover's list.  Their diverse collection prompted me to do a three part series on my visit there.  We start with someone whose work you have seen here before, Eugene Jansson, and his self portrait at the Floating Bath House.  Click on his label below or in the right hand column for more of his work and some biographical info.

 

Athletes

Here we see Athletes from 1912.

 

Early self portrait

This early Eugene Jansson self portrait was in a stray corner of the museum.

 

Eugene Jansson Day, Part 2 - Nude Art Works

Part two of our Jansson double feature contains five of his nude art works.

This one is rather unimaginatively called "Two Models." 

The Floating Bathhouse was the scene of several Jansson paintings, and this is probably the best known.  It made the rounds on tumblr a few years ago, but no one (including me) mentioned that the guy at center approaching the diving board was Jansson's lover Knut Nylan.  And could the midair diver be Jansson himself?  We earlier saw a photo of him doing exactly that sort of dive. 

This piece is wonderfully mundane and beautiful at the same time. 

If you click on the label attached below this post, previous Jansson themed posts will come up, including one with a photograph believed to be the three models who posed for this drawing. 

This untitled piece looks like a study, but I think I've seen it 

in a tourist's photo made inside a museum.

 

Eugene Jansson Day, Part 1 - Nude photos at the Floating Bathhouse

Swedish artist Eugene Jansson was fond of spending time at the Swedish Navy's floating bathhouse swimming facility.  I have nine photos made there around 1905, some of which feature Jansson himself and his lover Knut Nylan, standing here right and left respectively.  The first half of our Jansson double feature focuses on these, followed by some of Jansson's art featuring Nyland and cadets as models.

I found this photo of two cadets boxing on a collectors' website labeled

"Jansson's Bathhouse Boxers, 1905."  I can't tell if that meant the photo was by Jansson 

himself or just made at the bathhouse where he was so well known to hang out.

Here we see Eugene Jansson diving with an audience of about a dozen nude cadets.

I'd love to know who took these photos.  It probably wasn't Jansson's lover 

Knut Nyland because he appears in most of them along with Jansson. 

In addition to swimming, some of the naval cadets at the Floating Bathhouse got some exercise by running laps around the enclosure.  Here we can just barely see Jansson behind the front runner. 

I posted this photo of Eugene Jansson (right) and his lover Knut Nyland on the diving board

 at the Floating Bathhouse about a year ago, but I think it is worth a repeat.

Eugene Jansson Day, Part 2 - Paintings

Shifting to Jansson's art for the second series today.  If you look carefully at some of the photos I posted earlier, you might see some Swedish Navy cadets who resemble this fellow.

This is a typical 19th C. academic drawing pose, 

and I find the model's hairy legs and arms interesting.

A personal favorite of mine, I think this painting has "attitude."

Although it didn't come to me labeled as such, I think this drawing is another Jansson academic piece.

This Jansson painting of a young man in a doorway appears to show some of his Stockholm city scene paintings in the background.  Did he paint it in a gallery or museum?

Eugene Jansson Day, Part 1 - Photographs

Eugene Jansson (1862-1915) was a gay Swedish painter who was influenced by the impressionists, but had his own distinct style.  Known for his Stockholm city scenes in his early career, he almost exclusively painted male nudes after 1900.  He took up swimming for his health, and frequented the Swedish Navy's Floating Bathhouse where he met many of his models and perhaps his lover, Knut Nylan.  Today is Jansson day, and we begin with some photos, mostly swimming scenes.

Knut Nylan (left) was Eugene Jansson's (right) lover and occasional model. 

 I haven't been able to figure out if Knut was a naval cadet, 

but he and Eugene spent a lot of time with some young men who were.