Nils von Dardel

Nils Elias Kristofer von Dardel (25 October 1888 – 25 May 1943), sometimes known as Nils de Dardel, was a 20th-century Swedish Post-Impressionist painter and grandson of the famous Swedish painter Fritz von Dardel.

Biography John Blund (1927), on display at the Stockholm Public Library. Dardel was born in Bettna, Södermanland, Sweden in 1888. He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm Some of his most famous paintings are The Dying Dandy, Crime Passionnel, Svarta Diana and John blund.

Family life Nils Dardel was born into the Swedish noble family von Dardel, son of the landowner Fritz August von Dardel and Sofia Matilda Norlin. His grandfather was the Swedish painter Fritz von Dardel, adjutant to the later king Charles XV of Sweden and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm, where Nils later studied between 1908–1920, and of which he eventually became a member in 1934.

In 1919, he proposed to Nita Wallenberg, but her father, a Swedish diplomat, disapproved of Dardel and the marriage was not to be. This was linked closely to the creation of his work Exekution (Execution), which is said to be symbolic of the rejection.

After the marriage to Thora, sometime in the 1930s Nils met Edita Morris (; 1902–1988), a Swedish writer with whom he shared his remaining life,

Post-Impressionism Dardel explored Pointillism, using strong colors together with very clear motifs. Begravning i Senlis (Funeral in Senlis) from 1913 typifies this style and was painted while Dardel was visiting a staying in the medieval town of Senlis. Another early painting was the portrayal German art dealer Alfred Flechtheim. Over the course of Dardel's life, he primarily painted humans, concentrating on portraiture or paintings of groups of people.

His works are on display in a number of museums and galleries including Nationalmuseum, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Malmö konstmuseum, Nasjonalgalleriet and Waldermarsudde. His works Självporträtt (Self-portrait) and Visit hos en excentrisk dam (Visit at an eccentric lady) were featured by the Swedish Postal-works 1988 stamp series Svenska konstnärer i Paris (Swedish artists in Paris).

His 1918 work Den döende dandyn (The dying dandy) was sold twice at record prices at Bukowskis in Stockholm; first in 1984 at 3,4 million kronor and again in 1988 for the then termed sensational 13 million kronor. Simultaneously the image took on an iconic role within the 1980s Swedish gay movement. His works came to be analyzed under the budding field of gender-studies, and the ambivalence of the sex of his characters were topic of study.

"Vattenfallet", 1921 – sold in 2012 for a record-breaking 25 million kronor. Dardel's work Vattenfallet (or the Waterfall) sold for 25 million kronor in 2012 and was to date the most expensive modernist Swedish painting ever sold. The buyer was an undisclosed individual. The record in turn supplanted the earlier record held by the Dying Dandy.

Selected works

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s