Alfred Jansson

This oil painting on canvas, created around 1885 and signed by the Swedish-American painter Alfred Jansson, captures a serene landscape with a young boy fishing in a river. With masterful use of subtle shades, Jansson skillfully evokes the atmosphere of a gloomy forest setting. The piece is elegantly framed with gilded wood and stucco.

Alfred Jansson born in the province of Värmland, Sweden on December 11, 1863. Studied art in Stockholm, Oslo, and Paris. He began his professional career as a landscape painter in Sweden. He immigrated to the United States in 1889 at age 26, settling in Chicago in 1889. He did not, however, become a US citizen until 1922. Jansson continued his art studies in his adopted city and was commissioned to decorate the agricultural building at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1892. The next year, he painted murals in the Swedish Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. From 1898 to 1925, he was a prolific exhibitor in the Art Institute of Chicago’s annual exhibitions, showing landscape paintings exclusively. There, he has had an impressive 85 paintings displayed and is best remembered for his landscapes of Illinois, particularly spring and winter scenes.

Jansson was a part of a large Scandinavian community of painters who lived in Chicago. He became part of a group known as the Illinois Impressionists, worked in oils and occasionally also in watercolors and pastel.  In addition to being a member of the Swedish American Art Association, Jansson was also a member of the Palette and Chisel Club, the Chicago Arts Club, Svenska Konstnärer, the Chicago Society of Artists, the Chicago Painters and Sculptors Association, and the Art League of Chicago. He was particularly active in the local community of Swedish-American artists. He was represented in “American Painters of Swedish Descent,” an exhibition that traveled to New York and three cities in Sweden before appearing at the Art Institute in 1920. Alfred Jansson died in Chicago on September 4, 1931.

Artist: Alfred Jansson (1863-1931).
Signed in the lower left corner.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Condition: Very good condition.
Dimensions: 57 x 44 cm. / 22 1/2 x 17 1/4 in.
Frame: 81 x 68 cm. / 32 x 26 3/4 in. Very good condition.
Origin: Sweden.