Johan Tirén, born October 12, 1853 in Själevad parish, Västernorrland county, died August 24, 1911 in Länna parish, Stockholm county, was a Swedish painter. Tirén was the older brother of the artist Karl Tirén. At the age of seven, Johan Tirén moved with his family to Oviken in Jämtland, where his father got a job as parish priest. He studied after matriculation at Tekniska skolan in Stockholm and in the years 1877–80 at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm, where he won the royal medal in 1880 for the competition subject "Loki is imprisoned by the Asar". Tirén won the public's attention when he exhibited "A Jämtlandsägen" at the student exhibition at the Academy the following year. The large canvas is a classic Näcken depiction, with the fiddler as a youth in Jämtland costume listening to Näcken's violin playing in the middle of the foaming rapids; a motif in which Zorn modeled the figure of the fiddler.

 

After studying in Norrland in the winter of 1881, he exhibited three patchwork motifs in the spring, and managed to get an academic travel scholarship to go south in the autumn, across Holland, Belgium, Paris to Upper Bavaria, where he found environments similar to the nature of his native Jämtland. In the spring of 1883 he went to Rome where he received orders from the director of the academy to go to Munich for further studies. Tirén went to Paris instead and then spent the summer in Denmark. In the autumn he returned to Paris and studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme, but never took an interest in the subjects that Paris had to offer. When Tirén did not get his travel grant extended for domestic trips in Sweden, he settled again in Oviken in 1883, a place he came to remain faithful to in his creation. He mainly depicted the northern mountain landscape and the life of the Sami people.

 

Johan Tirén was strongly committed to the rights of the Sámi and made, among other things, the strong painting Lappar tillvaratager shot reindeer in 1892. It became an entry in an extensive discussion about contradictions between permanent residents and Sámi in Härjedalen, the so-called "Cultural struggle". The painting was prompted by the illegal shooting of reindeer at the instigation of mill patron William Farup at Ljusnedal's mill. Tirén is represented at, among others, the National Museum in Stockholm, the Norrköping Art Museum[8] and the Gothenburg Art Museum. In 1884, Johan Tirén married Gerda Tirén, née Rydberg, also an artist. They had a son Nils Tirén and a daughter Stina Tirén. Friluftsfrämjandet's logo is based on the drawing Den skidande lappen from 1900.