Painted in 1923, this work by Bror Hjorth (1894-1968) captures a scene that is less about a whirlwind romance and more about the quiet, heavy reality of surviving a Swedish winter together. While they might be a happy couple, their expressions suggest a happiness that has been forged through decades of agreeing on exactly how high the woodpile should be and whose turn it is to ignore the dog.
It’s a lovely piece of folk art and I rather like the air of desperation, there’s too much frivolity in the world. This is the sort of thing that I’d hang on the wall if I collected art and had an ability to put things on the wall without them falling down. The artwork was acquired in 1937, a gift from Ernst Colliander and Conny Colliander, who were local art collectors.