Lot 419: Carl Wilhelmson Swedish 1866-1928 , Morgontoilette (Morning Dress)

signed C Wilhelmson l.r. oil on canvas

101 by 73cm., 39¾ by 28¾in.

Uddevalla, Uddevalla Museum, Carl Wilhelmson , 1916, no. 54
Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Carl Wilhelmson, Retrospectiv Utställning , 1934, no. 261

Axel Romdahl, Carl Wilhelmson, Stockholm, 1938, p. 221, no. 409, listed

Herr Victor Wetterström

Painted in 1913, Morgontoilette depicts a tender and intimate scene of the artist's family at their home in Fiskebäckskil, Bohuslän. Wilhelmson's wife Berta Kerfsted plaits the hair of their youngest daughter Anna, born in 1907, in the Yellow Room while the artist's sister makes the bed in the background beyond.

Wilhelmson's best known works depict local fishermen and village folk from his native region of Bohuslän. The lack of sentimentality in his renderings endowed a sense of dignity on the people and their activities. Wilhelmson showed the same respect in depictions of members of his family, a subject he loved to paint.

Trained under Carl Larsson, Wilhelmson placed great importance on capturing his sitter's likeness. His early work was executed in a realist style, however increasingly Wilhelmson adopted a freer technique while still taking care to retain the individuality of each of his sitters. The looser layered style made up of feathery brushstrokes became Wilhelmson's hallmark, evoking light-filled atmospheres through the bare patches of canvas, as in the present work, the effect coming close to Pointillism.

Not listed in the inventory of the artist's output, the present familial composition was almost certainly not meant for sale but instead to be hung in the artist's own home.