The Supplement: John Bauer

"John Bauer was born in Jönköping in 1882. He grew up with his two brothers in an apartment above their father’s butcher’s shop in Östra torget, and in Villa Sjövik on the outskirts of Jönköping. At only sixteen years of age, he went to Stockholm to begin studying art. Two years later, he was accepted as a student at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. He was already being given illustrating commissions while he was at the Academy. The influence of artists such as Albert Engström and Carl Larsson can be seen clearly in his early works.

In the summer of 1904, the young John went on a month-long hike in the mountains with his camera over his shoulder and his sketchbook under his arm. The commission was to illustrate a magnificent volume on Lapland. In 1906 he married his friend from the Academy, Ester Ellqvist. They travelled together to southern Germany and Italy on a yearlong study trip, and the encounter with the Italian early renaissance had a profound impact on John’s work.

Between 1907 and 1915, John Bauer illustrated fairytales in Bland tomtar och troll (Among elves and trolls), a book published annually at Christmas. It was with these illustrations that John became the Swedish people’s favourite fairytale artist. But he constantly tried other means of expression, painting monumental frescoes, writing fairytale plays for children and writing a libretto for the ballet Bergakungen (The Mountain King).

On 20 November 1918, the canal boat Per Brahe sank on a voyage to Stockholm. The whole Bauer family - John, Ester and their three-year-old son Bengt, known as Putte - died."

from www.johnbauermuseum.nu