Sunday, May 30, 2021

Young gentlemen of Whanganui - photographs from the studio of William James Harding, New Zealand, circa 1856 - 1889

 
This is the same sitter as in the photograph above.

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William James Harding (19 September 1826, Southampton, England - 13 May 1899, Sydney), photographer with a studio in Whanganui, New Zealand. He was born in England, one of eight children, the son of a cooper. He was working as a coachbuilder when he married in 1853; he and his wife would also have eight children. The couple arrived in New Zealand two years later, two of Harding's brothers having already emigrated. Settling in Whanganui, he worked briefly as a cabinet-maker, but by the following year had established a photographic studio. The studio was soon moved to a two-storied, corrugated-iron building on Ridgway Street. Harding was apparently a gentle and pious man who found it difficult to cope with the increasing competition from other photographers in town. And he was more interested in landscape work than in the more profitable portraiture. Even supplementing his income by doing odd jobs like electroplating and carpentry, he endured frequent financial difficulties, at one stage even filing bankruptcy. The family's survival was largely due to his wife, who had established a successful school on their arrival in town, and also gave music and dancing lessons. With ever more competition from other studios and dwindling income, in 1889 he sold the studio and he and his wife went to Sydney to live with a daughter. In his studio he left behind more than 6,000 negatives of settlers and landscapes in the region, images which are an unequalled record of the colonial experience. The negatives are held in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, and the Wanganui Regional Museum.


Friday, May 28, 2021

The brightest dark - selected paintings by Pelle Swedlund

 
Solnedgång.
Solnedgång, 1903.
Afton, Västkusten, circa 1905.
Romulus och Remus.
Solnedgång i skärgården med segelbåt.
Västkustfjärd.
St. Nicolai kyrkoruin.
Solnedgång i Skärgården, circa 1900.
Den ensamme mannen på klippan, 1928.
Havslandskap med träd.
Templet.
Solnedgång över bergen, 1897.
 Kustlandskap i solnedgång.
 Fyren.
Afton, 1904.
 Månskensnatt.

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Per (Pelle) Adolf Swedlund (6 October 6 1865, Gävle Parish - 13 February 1947, Gävle), Swedish Symbolist painter. He studied at Uppsala University in 1885-6 and then at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts from 1889 to 1892. He then spent three years in France, followed by time in Belgium. From about 1900 to 1912, he lived in Italy, locations such as Chioggia, Montefiascone, Rome, and the Campagna featuring in his work. On his return to Sweden, he found inspiration in his home country's landscapes and historical sites. He exhibited extensively and successfully throughout his life. From 1932 to 1946 he worked as the senior curator at the Thielska Gallery in Stockholm. His artistic output diminished in his later life, partly due to poor health and partly due to his position at the Gallery. Having returned to the town of his birth, he died at the age of eighty-one.