Alfred Wahlberg

Herman Alfred Leonard Wahlberg (13 February 1834 – 4 October 1906) was a Swedish landscape painter.

Early life Alfred Wahlberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Wahlberg learned his father's profession as a child, but became a student at Royal Swedish Academy of Music after showing precocious musical talent. He studied piano and clarinet at the academy.

Career

Early career Wahlberg enjoyed painting and decided to pursue his father's profession. He started by drawing landscapes, and sold a painting for the first time in 1856 to the Swedish Association of Art (Sveriges Allmänna Konstförening).

He returned to Stockholm in 1862 and painted Svenskt insjölandskap från Kolmården (1866), which became very famous and was displayed at the National Museum of Arts. After his return to Stockholm in 1862, Wahlberg painted Storm på holländska kusten (1863), Fors i svensk obygd (largely influenced by Andreas Achenbach), Borgruinen Niedeck vid Rhen (1863), Skogsparti från Särö (1865), Hörningsholm i månsken (1866), and Svenskt insjölandskap från Kolmården (1866). The latter is a carefully composed view of an infinite forest (Kolmården), a lake, and a summersky. The evening sky and the moonlight is depicted in mild, melting colors. The painting became very famous and was displayed at the National Museum of Arts. Although Wahlberg was still restricted by the limits of his technique, the painting was a large progress in his development as a painter.

Wahlberg earned success and was awarded with medals at the Paris Salon in 1870 and 1872; these included the Order of Vasa.

At the 1878 World's Fair in Paris, Wahlberg was recognized with a first class medal. Wahlberg was credited for bringing the then modern techniques of landscape art to Sweden. Almost every summer he made a short return to Sweden to study the nature in places such as Stockholm archipelago, Skåne, Halland, and Värmland. He died on 4 October 1906 in Tranås.

Artistic Style Wahlberg's fondness of romantic, dreaming, lyrical, and musical atmospheres is reflected in his paintings depicting the evening and the moonlight's play with tones and light. Among his most famous paintings from this period are Fiskläge vid bohuslänska kusten (1869, bought by Charles XV of Sweden), Utsikt i Södermanland (view of a meadow and a lake in Södermanland, 1870), Landskap i månsken (landscape in moonlight, 1870), Månsken från södra Frankrike (moonlight in southern France, 1870), Nääs (a summer evening, 1871), I Vaxholm (an autumn day in Vaxholm, 1872), I Fontainebleauskogen (Fontainebleau forest, 1874), Maj i Nizza (May in Nice, 1878), Afton på Hallands Väderö (evening at an island, 1880), Fjällbacka (moonlight, 1881), and Svensk björkhage (1882).

Wahlberg's work from the late 1880s and forward includes Stockholms ström (1888), Månsken på Hallands Väderö (1889), Oktobernatt (1893), Popplar (1893), Sol på snö i Marstrand (1901), and Svensk sommarnatt (1901).

Gallery