Painted in oils on canvas, depicting a still life of dead game in the form of a wood pigeon hanging upside down hung from a nail and bound by its feet atop a ledge, against a sandy brown ground with a hunting satchel and flask amidst, the whole studiously depicted by Swedish painter Theodor Henrik Lundh (1812-1896) in the year of 1880 and presented in the original gilded plaster frame.
The Baeckstrom Family.
This painting has been in the same family as long as the vendor can remember. It was originally owned by his grandmother (1886–1965), who lived in Stockholm and was a keen amateur painter. The current vendor inherited the painting when she passed away.
Born in Stockholm in 1812, Henrik Theodor Lundh was a Swedish painter, photographer, restaurateur and conductor at the Royal Museum. He was the son of the brewer and cornet Adolph Fredric Lundh and Elisabeth Westin and from 1856 married Anna Sophia Charlotta Ekman. Lundh started studying painting with his uncle Fredric Westin at the age of 14 . He was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in 1829 but he continued his private tuition with his uncle who encouraged him to carry out history paintings.
During his studies, he was awarded a number of awards, including the Ticino Medal, the Chancellor’s Medal and the Royal Medal. He travelled to Paris in 1843 to further his education and under the influence of French art he abandoned history painting to paint still lifes and genre paintings instead.
He studied with his uncle, born Westin, then at the Art Academy and in Paris. He has painted children’s portraits, biblical and historical motifs, animals and flowers, as well as still lifes, usually with dead birds as we see here. He participated in the Academy of Fine Arts’ exhibitions. As a lithographer, he made a portrait of Karl XIV Johan and he made some miniature portraits of Axel Oxenstierna and Gustav II Adolf and is represented at the National Museum in Stockholm with Cuddle Birds, as well as in Gothenburg’s Art Museum with Fruit Still Life.
Lundh’s meticulous brushwork here highlights the textural details of the birds’ feathers and the contrast against the plain muted background is wonderfully suggestive; it feels as though one is there.
The painting only suffers from a tiny amount of damage, with a 1.5 mm pin hole to the upper right hand corner as photographed and otherwise remains in excellent condition. The signature is only visible by the aid of very strong light since it is as almost as dark as the background itself. There is a label verso for Jon Gustafsson Stockholm 36 Hamngatan which is reassuring.
By appointment only.
