$750
The Baptism in Treboul
OSTERLIND, Allan
Le Baptême à Tréboul (original French title) Color aquatint and etching on Arches wove paper.Edition unknown, but like most of the artist’s work s...
View full detailsAllan OSTERLIND
Born in well-to-do nobility in Sweden, Allan Osterlind (1855-1938) moved to Paris at age 22 to pursue his artistic ambitions. He quickly became part of the Nordic artistic community there, becoming friends with the likes of Ville Vallgren, Christian Skredsvig, August Strindberg and Prince Eugen. Osterlind would marry and have two children with a French woman and would never live anywhere else permanently again. Based in Paris he would take frequent trips to artist colonies such as Barbizon and Grez-sur-Loing in France and would portray many aspects of French life in his paintings. At the encouragement of his lifelong friend, Ernst Josephson, he travelled to Andalucia, where he fell in love with the local culture and captured the vibrant lifestyle so typical of Spain of the time. Although Osterlind drew and painted the occasional landscape, his focus was generally turned to the depiction of people. His distinct style utilizes realism with a truncated perspective that allows for an image full of activity and life. Even his seated portraits seem to undulate and dance within the frame and exude a sense of movement and activity. Most subjects in his prints and paintings have serene expressions, often with lanky frames, elegant long necks, and thin, delicate features. Around 1900 Allan Osterlind started to translate his better watercolors and paintings into color aquatints. He is today remembered equally for his paintings as he is for his prints. Sadly, he seems to have been unable to make much of a living selling either, since he is said to have died in poverty, despite his gilded childhood.