Nils Dardel

Nils Dardel (full name Nils Elias Kristofer von Dardel, sometimes known as Nils de Dardel) was a 20th-century Swedish Post-Impressionist painter, grandson to famous Swedish painter Fritz von Dardel.

Nils Dardel
Dardel in 1917
Born	Nils Elias Kristofer von Dardel (1888-10-25)25 October 1888 Bettna, Södermanland
Died	(1943-05-25)25 May 1943 (age 54) New York City
Nationality	Swedish
Alma mater	Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
Notable work	Den döende dandyn
Style	Post-Impressionism
Spouse	Thora Dardel

Biography

John Blund (1927), on display at the Stockholm Public Library.

Dardel was born in Bettna, Södermanland, Sweden in 1888. He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm between 1908–1910. Some of his most famous paintings are Den döende dandyn, Crime Passionnel, Svarta Diana and John blund.

Family life

Nils Dardel was born into the Swedish noble family von Dardel, son of the landowner Fritz August von Dardel and Sofia Matilda Norlin. His grandfather was the Swedish painter Fritz von Dardel, adjutant to the later king Charles XV of Sweden and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm, where Nils later studied between 1908–1920, and of which he eventually became a member in 1934.

Portrait of Nita Wallenberg in 1917, when Dardel met her in Japan.

In 1919, he proposed to Nita Wallenberg, but her father, a Swedish diplomat, disapproved of Dardel and the marriage was not to be. This was linked closely to the creation of his work Exekution (Execution), which is said to be symbolic of the rejection.

Nils Dardel married the author Thora Dardel (1899–1995 – née Klinckowström), which marriage lasted between 1921–1934. Together they had a daughter Ingrid von Dardel (1922–1962) who like her father became an artist. Both her sons Henry Unger (born 1945 – father Gustav Unger) and Nils Ekwall (born 1954 – father Lage Ekwall) in turn were also active Swedish artists.

After the marriage to Thora, sometime in the 1930s Nils met Edita Morris (1902–1988, née Toll), a Swedish writer with whom he shared his remaining life, though she remained married to Ira Victor Morris.

Paris

Dardels 1913 work Begravning i Senlis (Funeral in Senlis)

After studying in Sweden he did as many of his contemporaries and traveled to Paris around 1910 (such as Leander Engström, Isaac Grünewald, Einar Jolin, and Sigrid Hjerten who all became students of Henri Matisse). Dardel primarily took inspiration from the Fauvists with their pure palette, the Post-Impressionists, as well as Japanese woodcuts. Dardel also made a brief foray into Cubism, and painted a few cityscapes in the style.

Post-Impressionism

Dardel explored Pointillism, using strong colors together with very clear motifs. Begravning i Senlis (Funeral in Senlis) from 1913 typifies this style and was painted while Dardel was visiting a staying in the medieval town of Senlis. Another early painting was the portrayal German art dealer Alfred Flechtheim. Over the course of Dardel's life, he primarily painted humans, concentrating on portraiture or paintings of groups of people.

Ballets Suédois

Crime passionel – One of Dardel's paintings from the Ballets Suédois era, depicting a violent scene said to be indicative of Dardel's hectic personal life of the era.

After living in Paris for three years, Dardel and Rolf de Maré became friends. Maré would later create the Ballets Suédois, which performed in Paris between 1920 and 1925. The friendship benefited Dardel as Maré was able to act as a benefactor for Dardel's art, and the duo is also claimed to have been fruitful for Maré's dance company.

In the early 1920s, Dardel created a number of works based upon stage sets, and these have been likened to sketches of drama or film. Dardel also created the stage sets for Midsummer Wake (music by Hugo Alfvén), and Maison de Fous (a dance drama with compositions by Viking Dahl). Crime passionnel (Crime of Passion) from 1921 is typical of Dardel's paintings from this era.

Travels

Japanska (med rygg mot betraktaren) – Japanese woman (with back towards the viewer), shows influences of Dardels 1917 visit to Japan, including the medium, silk.

Nils was a prolific traveler, picking up influences and motives from different countries.

Later years

Dardel lived a nomadic life, traveling far and wide without ever really settling down. Many of his portraits are of people and places whom he met along his travels. He was known to be self-destructive.

Not exceptionally appreciated in his lifetime, his breakthrough in Sweden came simultaneously to the breaking out of World War II in Europe, at the time when Liljevalchs konsthall displayed a retrospective of Dardel's life and works.

Legacy

Ekerö Church outside Stockholm, where Nils lies buried.

Nils died in New York City in 1943, and was buried in Ekerö cemetery outside of Stockholm.

His works are on display in a number of museums and galleries including Nationalmuseum, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Malmö konstmuseum, Nasjonalgalleriet and Waldermarsudde. His works Självporträtt (Self-portrait) and Visit hos en excentrisk dam (Visit at an eccentric lady) were featured by the Swedish Postal-works 1988 stamp series Svenska konstnärer i Paris (Swedish artists in Paris).

His 1918 work Den döende dandyn (The dying dandy) was sold twice at record prices at Bukowskis in Stockholm; first in 1984 at 3,4 million kronor and again in 1988 for the then termed sensational 13 million kronor. Simultaneously the image took on an iconic role within the 1980s Swedish gay movement. His works came to be analyzed under the budding field of gender-studies, and the ambivalence of the sex of his characters were topic of study.

"Vattenfallet", 1921 – sold in 2012 for a record-breaking 25 million kronor.

Dardel's work Vattenfallet (or the Waterfall) sold for 25 million kronor in 2012 and was to date the most expensive modernist Swedish painting ever sold. The buyer was an undisclosed individual. The record in turn supplanted the earlier record held by the Dying Dandy.

Selected works

1900s

• 
  Self-portrait
  1906
• 
  Gosshuvud
  1908
• 
  Mansporträtt
  Portrait of a man
  1908
• 
  Torparflicka
  Farm girl
  1909

1910s

• 
  Flicka i blå klänning
  Girl in blue dress
  1910
• 
  Två flickor
  Two Girls
  1911
• 
  Turisthotellet i Rättvik
  Tourist hotel in Rättvik
  1915
• 
  Den döende dandyn
  The Dying Dandy
  1918
• 
  Den döende dandyn
  (1st version)
  1918

1920s

• 
  Visit hos excentrisk dam
  1921
• 
  Svarta Diana
  Black Diana
  1929
• 
  Drömmar och fanstasier #1
  Dreams and fantasies
  1922
• 
  En dans med döden
  A dance with Death
  1920
• 
  Familjeidyll
  Family idyll
  1923
• 
  Return to the Playgrounds of Youth
  1924

1930s

• 
  Marthe
  1930
• 
  Ett hjärta i brand
  A heart in flames
  ca. 1930
• 
  Fiskaren
  The angler
  1931
• 
  Gräshoppan
  The Grasshopper
  1931
• 
  Den bortrövade ormen
  ca. 1931
• 
  Autoportrait
  1935
• 
  Edita Morris
  1936

1940s

• 
  Mexican boy
  ~1940
• 
  Mexican girl
  ~1940
• 
  Mexikansk kvinna med korslagda händer
  Mexican woman with crossed hands
  ~1940
• 
  Hustrumördaren
  The wife murderer
  ~1940
• 
  Mexican girl
  ~1940
• 
  Gammal mexikansk kvinna
  Old Mexican lady
• 
  Mexikansk Indian

Further reading

• Nils von Dardel, in Moderna museet – The Book, ed. C. Widenheim et al., Stockholm, Moderna Museet, 2006 ISBN 9789171006967
• Nils Dardel – and the Modern Age by John Peter Nilsson et al., Moderna Museet, 2014 ISBN 9789186243586
• (in Swedish) Nils Dardel – I skuggan av dandyn, Halmstad: Mjellby Konstmuseum 2012 ISBN 9789198035117
• (in Swedish) En bok om Nils Dardel, by Thora Dardel, Bokförlaget Cordia, 2nd ed. 1995 ISBN 9170851506
• Russian-language site, with numerous Nils Dardel paintings