Primus Mortimer Pettersson - The White Castle

Primus Mortimer Pettersson (1895-1975) Sweden

The White Castle

oil on board
signed PMP
unframed: 18.5 x 21.5 cm (7 1/4 x 8 1/2 in)
framed: 28.5 x 32 cm (11 1/4 x 12 5/8 in)

Essay:

This small yet striking painting by Primus Mortimer Pettersson (18.5 x 21.5 cm) encapsulates the essence of his artistic vision—an imagined world where reality and dream blur into one. The castle, glowing in deep blues, warm ochres, and bright whites, appears both familiar and fantastical, a testament to Pettersson’s unique naïvist expressionism.

Primus Mortimer Pettersson, often referred to as "PMP" after his signature, was born in Östersund in 1895 and spent much of his life on Frösön. The son of a stove maker, he went to sea in 1909 and traveled widely before being institutionalized following a mental breakdown, likely caused by an accident onboard a ship. He spent most of his life as a patient at Frösö hospital, where he found solace in painting. His work was first exhibited in 1936, but it wasn't until the 1960s, during a surge of interest in naïve art, that he gained wider recognition. A major exhibition at Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet in Stockholm in 1966 marked his artistic breakthrough.


Primus Mortimer Pettersson in his later years, holding a pipe.

Like many of Pettersson’s paintings, this castle is not based on reality but rather on a deeply personal, almost hallucinatory vision. His work often features monumental yet uninhabited structures—buildings with dark windows, abandoned streets, and surreal, theatrical lighting. The castle’s whimsical spires and strong geometric forms reflect his fascination with architecture, reminiscent of the grand mosques of Istanbul or the towering structures of distant lands he may have glimpsed during his travels.

There is an eerie silence in Pettersson’s work, a quality that makes his art deeply evocative and melancholic. He was a painter of inner landscapes, where memory and imagination merged into something uniquely his own. Despite his late success, thousands of his paintings were tragically destroyed to inflate the value of the remaining works.

Today, Pettersson’s art is represented in institutions such as Moderna Museet, Magasin III, and several regional Swedish museums, with the Region Jämtland Härjedalen still holding a large collection of his works. His legacy endures as that of an artist who, despite being confined to an institution, created a world far greater than the one he physically inhabited.