Café Scene - Alf Wallander (1862-1914) Sweden

Alf Wallander (1862-1914) Sweden

Café Scene (Café interiör)

oil on board
signed Alf Wallander
frame 31.49 x 26.77 inches (80 x 68 cm)
panel size 23.89 x 19.29 inches (60.7 x 49 cm)

Provenance:
Sothebys London, lot 178, 07 June 2011, Sale Number: L11112;
Private Collection Sweden

Alf Wallander was the son of the architect Adolf Wallander and Hildegard Sofia Blom. Wallander studied at the Stockholm Royal Academy of Fine Arts 1880–1885, where he had his uncle as a teacher for a while. He further studied for Aimé Morot and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant in Paris 1885–1889, where he also participated in the Paris Salon in 1889. At the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, he was awarded first prize for his pastel painting Tiggargubbe (Today in Göteborgs Konstmuseum collection). When he returned to Sweden in 1890, he stood behind the controversial group "Opponenterna" and participated in the group's exhibitions during the 1890s. He began his artistic career as a painter and was a member of the Swedish Artists' Association. Under the influence of his friend Oscar Björck in the 1890s, he adopted a symbolist style, which later reappeared in his ceramics.

From 1910 until his death, he was also curator of the Swedish General Art Association and, from 1908, headteacher of freehand drawing at the Technical School in Stockholm. With his wife Gerda Wallander, he exhibited at the Artists' House in 1910 and at the Swedish General Art Association in 1914 and with Oscar Björck, Bruno Liljefors and Prince Eugene at Blanch's Art Salon in Stockholm in 1891. He participated in the Art Academy's exhibition in 1885 arranged by Norrland Art Association in Sundsvall and Söderhamn and the Swedish Artists' Association's exhibitions in Gothenburg, Chicago, Munich, Berlin, Malmö and Paris.
Wallander is represented at Gothenburg Art Museum, Hallwylsiska Museet, National Museum Stockholm, Minneapolis Museum, Nordic Museum, Thielska Galleriet, Prince Eugens Waldemarsudde, Norrköping Art Museum, Uppsala University Library, Louvre Abu Dhabi and Behn. -House in Lübeck.