August Strindberg (1849 - 1912)

Nationality

Sweden

Place of Birth

Stockholm, Sverige

Biography

Author, dramatist, and artist August Strindberg was born in Stockholm in 1849. He was not an academically trained artist and is seen as being self-taught. His idiosyncratic way of painting was inspired by the Impressionist approach of focusing on the emotion of the subject, rather than the details. He often painted stormy seas, memories from the Stockholm archipelago. He is often placed within Expressionism; explosive emotions are clearly displayed in his subjects and his technique. Strindberg associated with several major Swedish and Scandinavian artists – Carl Larsson, Richard Bergh, Edvard Munch – and spent periods living in the artists’ colony in Grez outside Paris. Strindberg has been described as one of the biggest personalities in Swedish culture and as a literary genius, but also as a troublemaker with a hot temper, a contradictory character often ruled by his emotions.