1882 was a remarkably productive year for him, with a succession of major works, including landscapes, and Naturalist paintings which were dominant long after his death.
naturalism
A detailed look at his paintings of the rural poor which led up to Naturalism, and how he used a compositional formula so successfully.
After a rough patch in the 1890s, he found his earlier form and painted spectacular works showing seabirds around the fragment coast of the Baltic.
Following Dürer’s 1502 painting of a Young Hare, Liljefors painted wild birds and animals in their natural environment. He remains one of the most important wildlife artists.
His paintings of markets, including Paris’s famous Les Halles, are superb, as are his pastels.
Little-known now, and only for his paintings of harvesters and gleaners, in his day he was at the leading edge of the Naturalist revolution, painting scientists.
From 1880, artists concentrated on social aspects of work. They questioned whether young children should be at work, and the role of the worker in society.
With the Industrial Revolution, painters started to depict the furnaces and factories which grew rapidly across Europe and North America. This selection runs to 1879.
After the early death of Bastien-Lepage, he led the Naturalist movement in France. After 1892, though, he concentrated on religious themes seen in a new light.
Working alongside Jules Bastien-Lepage, he was a brilliant painter who in his early career experimented with different styles.
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