John Bauer

[alexandral]

John Bauer (04.07.1882 – 20.11.1918 was a painter and illustrator from Sweden. His most known illustrations are for the popular Swedish fairytale annual, "Bland tomtar och troll" (Among Elves and Trolls) . Apparently this annual is still going! I was introduced to his art by baleanoptera in her excellent post Picturing that which is not, again and immediately fell in love with it.

John Bauer was one of the people whose life follows inexplicable and dark fate. His sister died when she was 13 and this made a huge impact on him and his family. He was suffering from depression and had family difficulties in his later life. John Bauer, his wife and his son died in the shipwreck and this is a very strange story : they decided to go to Stockholm by ferry because they had heard of the recent train accident.

I have been collecting his illustrations for quite a while already and meant to post them for ages. They are absolutely amazing, outworldly and mysterious!
























































I have made some icons from John Bauers's illustrations, free to share. Preview:

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Comments

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

Sadly I don't know the story! I've been trying to find it, but Swedish fairytales are not very well known in Norway.
(there is this whole cultural rivalry between Sweden and Norway, and since Norway is so proud of their own fairytales the Swedish ones have largely been ignored. I find that really sad - since I love fairytales and think the more the merrier!) But I'll still keep a lookout and tell you if I come across it.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEE! One of the comments in this post had a short description of the story:

http://alexandral.livejournal.com/140262.html?thread=2449382#t2449382

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

Yay! That is so great! A mystery is solved. I must try to get my hands on one of the Bauer books as well, because now I'm curious about all the other images as well. hee.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

They really are STRANGE INTERSTING tales!