Bror Hjort | 1894-1968
Bror Hjorth was born 1894 in Marma, Sweden and died 1968 in Uppsala, Sweden. He was was one of Sweden’s best-known sculptors and painters, and was professor of art at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm from 1949 to 1959. On completion of his studies, he lived in Uppsala, where he built his studio home in Kåbo, now the Bror Hjorths Hus museum. He was awarded the Sergel Prize in 1955.
Training
In 1915, Hjorth spent a month studying under Caleb Althin and a month studying under G. Hallström. He took a break from his studies from 1915 to 1919 due to illness, before enrolling at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen for a year and a half, followed by four years studying sculpture in Paris under Antoine Bourdelle.
Style, background and works
Näckens polska statues and fountain in front of Uppsala Central railway station.
Hjorth is known for his figures, which are often roughly carved in wood and decorated using only a few bright colours. He also painted a number of landscapes and studio interiors. He grew up among farmers and woodlanders in Dalboda, where he came into contact with local styles of music which came to have a great influence on his work. He showed promising artistic tendencies from an early age - his schoolbooks were decorated with sketches, but this did not prevent him from completing his studies - and his artistic skills continued to flourish in later life. His Kärlek (Love) sculptures, which he completed in the 1930s, were highly controversial and widely misunderstood.
Brother Hjorth as a sculptor
Bror Hjorth's sculptures are often firmly anchored in the ground. They have volume and weight and are often tight and well collected in their poses. Hair and clothes have been simplified and stylized. In his early sculptures, from the 1920s, Bror Hjorth preferably worked directly in the sculpture's final material. He took great account of the properties of the material and its original form. Brother Hjorth received his main artistic training as a student of the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière art school in Paris in the early 1920s. In several of Bror Hjorth's early sculptures from Paris, the influence of the teacher is clear. But he was also inspired by the art of older times, not least Egyptian sculpture and Assyrian relief art, as well as folk art and cubism. It was in sculpture, if he is to be believed, that he put his greatest efforts in the 1920s. He wanted to renew the Swedish sculpture and also soon gained notoriety in artist circles. Today Bror Hjorth is seen just as much as a painter. Some of Bror Hjorth's sculpted love couples contributed to his public breakthrough in the mid-1930s. The sculptures were considered indecent by the police and Brother Hjorth was forced to remove them from an exhibition. The whole thing caused quite a stir and got a lot of attention in newspapers around the country. During his life, Bror Hjorth made many sculptures for public environments. The largest of these is Näckens polska, which stands outside the travel center in Uppsala. It rises six meters and came into place the year before the artist's death.
Highlights of his extensive work include
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Kubistisk flicka (Cubist Girl), sculpture, 1921
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Visdomens Brunn (The Fount of Wisdom), sculpture, 1933
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Begravningen (The Burial), painting, 1925
One indication of Hjorth's significance as an artist is that the Swedish Post Office has on three occasions (including the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1995) issued postage stamps featuring his work.
Public works
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Altarpieces at Salabackekyrkan, Uppsala and Jukkasjärvi Church
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Reliefs at Skogskyrkogården in Stockholm and in Borås
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Work at the Workers' Educational Association in Stockholm
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Works at the theatre and municipal buildings in Norrköping
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Näckens polska, sculpture and fountain outside Uppsala Central railway station.
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Statue of Anders Ljungqvist (Gås-Anders) next to the church in Björkling
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Represented at
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The Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm
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Waldemarsudde, Stockholm
