Göran Schildt

Gustaf Ernst Göran Schildt (11 March 1917 – 24 January 2009) was a Finnish Swede author and art historian. He was the son of the author Runar Schildt and Miia Mathilda Heikel.

Life and work

Schildt is perhaps best known for his travelogues with the sailboat Daphne. He made the decision to become a Mediterranean sailor after being seriously injured during the Finnish Winter War and forced to spend a year and a half in hospital. "Then I thought that if I can do this, I will realize my dream: I will get a boat and sail around all corners of the Mediterranean," he later said. The architect Alvar Aalto was one of the guests at Daphne and their lifelong friendship was the basis for Schildt's masterpiece, the three-part biography of Aalto. and received his doctorate in philosophy with a dissertation on the painter Cezanne and also studied languages at the Sorbonne in Paris. He moved to Sweden in 1945 and was an art and literature critic for Svenska Dagbladet 1950–1990. He was offered a professorship in art history the University of Helsinki, but chose to continue as a writer.

Awards and recognition Person has received the following awards and recognition:

1950 – 1952 – 1981 – Svenska Akademiens Finlandspris 1991 – 2000 – Member of Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts