Stefan Johansson

Johansson was one of what I consider to be a group of northern European painters who were focused on capturing qualities of light around the turn of the 20th century.

I haven’t seen enough of Johansson’s work to form an opinion.
Online, you can find several images of his lights at night or at dusk being reflected in the water. The light and color in these works are well done.

From what I have read, Johansson seems to have entered the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, only to have found it not to his liking. Later he would say he learned nothing from his experience there. He did however credit his learning to trips he made to Italy during his formative years. In Italy, Johansson was inspired by the Renaisance painters and in turn developed a unique approach that must make his artworks an experience one must view in person to fully understand. His approach seems to be using tempera and water color paints as essentially dyes on tightly bound canvas’. It is said that this approach is insanely labor intensive.

Contemporaries of Johansson that in my mind are very similar include Eugene Jansson and Vilhelm Hammershoi. Critics also fold in Edvard Munch, but that might be a stretch.

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