Among the trolls and gnomes. Tales of Scandinavian writers

All Swedish tales of this collection are illustrated by magnificent drawings of the Swedish artist Jon Bauer. This is the main feature of the real publication. Bauer was not the only master who turned in his work to the folklore of his native country, but he occupies a completely special place among such artists. His images of fabulous trolls and gnomes are so original and original that they involuntarily make you believe in the existence of a fabulous world inhabited by these creatures. Yon was born in the town of Yyoncheping in the summer of 1882. The father of the future artist Joseph was engaged in sausages and sausages. Jon had two brothers and sister, but only he was shown with interest in drawing. The boy always struck in a notebook and on paper leaves; In school notebooks, he painted caricatures on his teachers. At first, parents treated this lesson as youthful pampering, however, when Jona was sixteen, he stated that he wanted to receive a full -fledged art education in Stockholm, and entered the Royal Academy of Free Arts. Already during the first year of study, his teachers noted Bauer's special talent - even very small works were inherent in a certain monumentality. Yon went to study with his head - he sketched medieval costumes, plants, studied the composition and foundations of the traditional drawing.

Bauer managed to realize his dream. A peculiar turning point in his art education was a trip to the north of the country - to Lapland. The landscapes and life of people of this harsh edge made a strong impression on the artist. The rich ethnographic material that Jon gathered in Lapland helped him in the future when working on illustrations for Swedish fairy tales. And there was such a work: in 1907, almanacs began to be published in Sweden "among the dwarves and trolls." It was an annual in which Swedish writers printed various fairy tales and folklore stories. The idea turned out to be successful - almanac still exists. Yona was lucky to illustrate all his issues that were published until 1915, the exception was only the fifth collection for 1911.

Unfortunately, the artist’s life tragically broke off on November 20, 1918, when Yon and his young wife and his young son got to his son Stockholm on the steamer "Per Brage". The ship hit the storm and turned upside down. All crew members and passengers drowned. Bauer was only 36 years old at that time. When four years later, the wreckage of the ship was raised to the surface, the remains of the Bauer family were buried in the south of Sweden, in the artist’s hometown.