Nils Larson (1872 - 1914)

A study of the model Pierre Louis Alexandre

Watercolour on paper

52.8 x 42.1 cm. (20 ¾ x 16 ½ in.)

Provenance:

Private Collection, Gothenburg;

Götesborg Auktionverk, 9 April 2020;

Mats Werner Collection, Stockholm, until 2021.

This watercolour depicting the remarkable Pierre Louis Alexander was executed by Nils Larsson in 1896 during a life class at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. In fine condition, the watercolour is a rare example of an academic study from late 19^th-century Europe in which the identity of a black model is known.

Pierre Louis Alexander had an eventful life. Born in French Guiana in 1843 or 1844, likely into slavery, he arrived in Stockholm in 1863, probably as a stowaway on an American ship with cargo of pork. In the late 19^thcentury, the Atlantic crossing would have taken two to three weeks in good conditions and up to two to three months in inclement weather, giving some indication as to of Pierre’s determination and resourcefulness. 

On arrival, Pierre found employment as a dock labourer in Stockholm’s harbour, though this was seasonal work, as the docks froze over from November to April. To survive over the winter period, Pierre found work as a model at the Academy of Fine Arts. In fact, he was paid much more for his modelling than for his dock labour: an 1878 receipt (fig. 1) shows that Pierre was paid 75 öre to model at the academy, whereas at the dock he would have received an hourly wage of 25 to 30 öre. The first depiction of Pierre dates to 1878 and the last to 1903. In total, there are about forty extant works in which he is the model, a remarkable body of work taken as a whole. He is therefore very likely the black sitter prior to 1900 of whom we have the most images.

Fig.1, Payment receipt from 1878

In the archival sources, Pierre appears with the Swedish surnames of ‘Pettersson’ and ‘Alexandersson’. He seems to have married twice, having two children with his first wife, and living at several different address over the years in Södermalm in Stockholm, before dying in 1905 of tuberculosis. Unlike in Britain or France for example, the black presence in Sweden in the late 19^th century would have been negligible, so Pierre would certainly have stood out and seems to have been a well-known figure at the docks, depicted by the caricaturist Albert Engström for example in the early 1890s.

Working as a model for nearly three decades, Pierre was depicted by many of Sweden’s leading late 19^th-century artists, such as Anders Zorn and Verner Åkerman. Two photographs exist of him in the studio of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts: in the first dating to about 1890, he sits bare-chested on a platform with drapery across his lap, surrounded by artists at work (fig. 2); in the second from around 1900 he stands against a carpet, wearing middle eastern garb and holding a scimitar (fig. 3). The yellow cloth Pierre Louis wears in Larson’s watercolour seems to have been a longstanding prop, appearing in works from 15 years prior, such as Oscar Björck’s depiction from the early 1880s (fig. 4). 

Figs. 2 and 3, Pierre Louis Alezandre modelling in life classes at the

Royal Swedish Academy

Nils Larson (fig. 5) was born near Gotheburg and undertook his first artistic training in that city, before moving to Stockholm to complete his artistic education at the Royal Swedish Academy, studying there between 1891 and 1896. He received an award in his last year, around the time he completed the present work. Exhibiting regularly in Sweden, his oeuvre consists primarily of landscapes and images of rural workers from Götland, as well as the occasional portrait. Larson was very proficient as a watercolourist, as the depiction of Pierre Louis Alexander attests, and favoured this medium throughout his life. He died in Gothenburg in 1914 and, as the present work was sold auction in that city in 2020, the watercolour may have remained in Larson’s possession at the time of his death.

Fig. 4, Oscar Björck, Pierre Louis Alexandre, oil on canvas, 92 x 73 cm, Private Collection

Fig. 5, Nils Larson, Self-portrait, 1903, watercolour, 36 x 27 cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm