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Linnqvist, Hilding
(b Stockholm, 20 April 1891; d Stockholm, 30 Sept 1984). Swedish painter and designer. He studied at the Konsthögskola in Stockholm from 1910 to 1912 and then became influenced by Edvard Munch and Ernst Josephson, as shown by Self-portrait (1913; Göteborg, Kstmus.), executed in swift, loose brushstrokes. At the same time he experimented with a type of Cubism, as in the angular, stylized Mountain Landscape (1913; Lidingö, Stift. Hilding Linnqvists Kst), which was influenced by the work of André Lhote. In 1917 he painted a mural for the Tekniska Högskola in Stockholm and the same year was a founder-member of a Swedish painters’ group that included Victor Axelson (1883–1954), Alf Munthe (1892–1971), Fritiof Scüldt (d 1891) and Axel Nilsson (b 1889), which was active until 1923. From 1920 to 1923 he travelled in Italy, England and France. Having been influenced from the 1910s by the Swedish folk art tradition, he developed a naive painting style, as in Market Scene: Small French Town (Chinon) (1921–5; Stockholm, Mod. Mus.). In 1928 he painted murals for the Stadsbibliotek in Stockholm and in the same period visited Spain and Morocco. In 1934 he became a member of the FÄRG OCH FORM group and in 1937–8 travelled in Greece. During the 1930s Linnqvist became influenced by the work of Cézanne: his painting lost its earlier naive style and was executed in firm, broad brushstrokes, as in Chapel in the Wilderness: Scene from Greece (1938; Stockholm, Mod. Mus.). He was a professor at the Konsthögskola in 1939–41 and in 1946–7 travelled in Egypt, producing such brightly coloured works as Pasha’a Island (1947; priv. col., see exh. cat., p. 50). In 1948 he executed a fresco for Sofia Church in Stockholm and in 1956 designed the décor for a performance of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Kungliga Teater in Stockholm. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he collaborated with the Aubusson firm in designing various tapestries, such as the Dream of Disa (1959) for Nytorps Skola in Stockholm. His paintings of the 1950s and 1960s were strongly outlined and firmly brushed, as in Villa Entrance at Gardasjön (1968; Stockholm, Mod. Mus.), showing an increasing debt to Cézanne. He continued painting and executing decorative commissions; his later works include the watercolour Gardone (1979; priv. col., see exh. cat., p. 59). In 1982 he established the Hilding Linnqvist Foundation which has exhibited frequently in Sweden and in 1991 at the Villa Reale in Milan. The foundation, now controlled by the State, holds an important collection by Linnqvist.
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