Två fullödiga verk av Nils Jakob Blommér: Angsälvor och ett makalöst porträtt

Summary During his last years, Nils Jakob Blommer (1816–53) devoted himself passionately to themes within the realm of Nordic saga. He died in Rome, where he had been sent by the Royal Academy in Stockholm with the express recommendation to refine his style by studying Raphael and the great masters of the Renaissance. The method may seem questionable for a painter who aimed at expressing a national Nordic sentiment. Most critics will agree that his mission had been fulfilled already in 1850 in Paris, where he created such works as the large Fairy Dance which is widely regarded as his master‐piece (Fig. 1). Surely proceeding from some reproduction of Moritz von Schwind's Elfentanz im Erlenhain (1843— 44, Frankfurt a.m.), Blommer offers here a version which is totally different: where the former may seem noisy and restless, Blommer's alternative is inaudible and serene. Landscape and fairies are interwoven, yet clearly distinguished, and instead of action the viewer perceives the very state of being. At the...