Hilding Werner - Landscape With a Red Barn

HILDING WERNER (1880-1944) Swedish

Värmland Landscape With a Red Barn

oil on board
signed H Werner
c. 1940
board dimensions 46 x 62 cm
A handmade frame in walnut tree by Christer Björkman is included, dimensions 58 x 74 cm.

The Värmland artist Hilding Werner was a Swedish painter and draftsman.
He was the son of the landowner Anders Andersson and Inga Maria Johannesdotter. After finishing school at Karlstad University, Werner studied at Caleb Althin's painting school in Stockholm in 1899 and at the same time earned a side income as a cartoonist in the newspaper Nya Nisse.
In 1905 he made his only study trip to the Netherlands. He settled in Hammartjärnet in 1907, and there he set up a studio. During the first years, he kept in touch with the comrades in the painting group De Frie and participated in their exhibitions.
When he returned to Värmland in 1907, he came in contact with Gustaf Fjæstad and Werner and then got an impression of Fjæstad's romantic and realistic landscape images. Together with Fjæstad and Bror Lindh, he made a boat trip in 1912 to Otto Hesselbom in Säffle and there, Hesselbom's painting so strongly influenced him that it came to control his future production.

This painting is most likely from Gillbergsdalen or Fryksdalen, there are so many fine details, such as the sky, which fade seamlessly from blue-purple-pink-red-yellow, painted with such great care.
A red Barn is so typical for the Swedish arable land, surrounded by a foggy pond with reflections—a rare piece in a perfect condition.