1862 -1915 · Swedish symbolism, Stockholm blue nights and athletic bodies

Nocturnal banks, urban lights and deep blues made Eugène Jansson the great painter of Stockholm before his turn towards the athletic male nude.

Eugène Fredrik Jansson was born in Stockholm in 1862. Weakened by a childhood illness which lastingly affected his hearing and speech, he devoted himself very early to drawing and music. He studied briefly at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, then joined the independent community of Konstnärsförbundet, opposed to conservative academic teaching. Installed in 1890 on the heights of Södermalm, Jansson dominated from his accommodation the waters of Riddarfjärden, the quays and the central islands of Stockholm. This viewpoint becomes the laboratory of its "blue": nights, dawns, mists, snows and reflections are constructed by vast ranges of cobalt, ultramarine and violet. The rare lights yellow or red give the city a distant, almost musical presence. Riddarfjärden in Stockholm, painted in 1898, combines vertical format, dark water surface and urban silhouette with symbolist intensity. After 1904, Jansson almost entirely abandoned urban landscapes to represent swimmers, gymnasts and weightlifters. He frequented the naval baths of Stockholm and built large male nudes where the modern body, effort and sensuality became the new subjects. This second period, long less shown, also sheds light on his homosexual identity in a repressive society. Jansson died in 1915. His work apparently unites two visions opposites: the blue solitude of the city and the physical energy of the body. The "Eugène Jansson" selection notably compares Riddarfjärden in Stockholm. His reading favors drawing.

Jansson paints Stockholm as night music: blue establishes silence, water extends the city and each light becomes an isolated note.