Ester Ellqvist

Ruth Ester Elisabet Ellqvist (4 October 1880 – 20 November 1918) was a Swedish artist and model. She studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts and spent one year studying art in southern Germany and Italy with her husband. She died in 1918 with her husband and three-year-old son when the boat that they sailed on sank, killing all 24 people on board.

Biography

Early life Ester Ellqvist was born on 4October 1880 in Ausås, Skåne, daughter of teacher Karl Kristersson Ellqvist, and raised in Stockholm. Ellqvist was a lively person who enjoyed the city's social life. In 1906 she married John Bauer, who was a painter and illustrator.

Education Ellqvist studied in the late 1890s at the Technical School (later known as Konstfack) in Stockholm, to gain the skills that she need to gain acceptance at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. Her brothers Oscar and Ernst, who became photographers, and sister Gerda, who taught needlework, also attended the technical school.

In 1900 her studies commenced at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.

Ellqvist was an ambitious, skilled student during the early stages of the Modernist art movement, and at the end of the National Romanticism period, which was represented in the works of academy artists Carl Larsson, Anders Zorn, Bruno Liljefors and Richard Bergh. Ellqvist and her friends, were among the students of the academy who organized a protest against the conservative views of the school, which resulted in the creation of the influential Konstnärsförbundet (Artists Association). In 1908, financed by Bauer's father, they traveled through southern Germany and Italy for one year to study art.

The Fairy Princess, 1904, oil sketch Freja, 1905, oil sketch Ester in the Cottage, 1907, watercolor

Ellqvist and Bauer had a son Bengt, who they called "Putte".

By 1917, their marriage was in trouble and their love for each other began to dwindle. Ellqvist had essentially given up her own artistic aspirations for her role as a wife.

Death

Ellqvist, Bauer and their three-year-old son died on 20November 1918 when the SS Per Brahe sailing to Stockholm sank in Lake Vättern, killing all 24 people (8 passengers and 16 crew members) on board. On 18August 1922, the Bauers were buried at the Östra cemetery in Jönköping (in quarter 04 plot number 06).

Career Her self-portrait is the cover for (Behind the masks: the hidden message in female 1880s writer).

Porträtt av en ung kvinna med rysch (Portrait of a young woman in ruffles) Dubbelporträtt av barn (Double portrait of children)

In popular culture In 1986, Sveriges Television produced and broadcast the movie Ester – om John Bauers hustru ("Ester – About John Bauer's Wife). Ester was played by Lena T. Hansson and John was portrayed by Per Mattsson. The movie was directed by Agneta Elers-Jarleman.