BIRGER, Hugo - b. 1854 Stockholm, d. 1887 Helsingborg

Hugo Birger (born Hugo Birger Petterson), Swedish painter. He studied at the Konstakademi in Stockholm from 1871 to 1877. In 1877 he went to Paris and then spent the summer of 1878 at Barbizon with Carl Larsson, among others. There he painted several spontaneous plein-air paintings, such as Rue Gabrielle (1879; Kunstmuseum, Gothenburg), in which the grey tones are contrasted realistically with exquisite colours. He also painted scenes of Parisian life, such as The Toilette (1880; two sketches in Nationalmuseum, Stockholm), which aroused the interest of his contemporaries when it was exhibited at the Salon that year.

Birger’s art was always conventional in style, allied to French salon painting. He was a master of technique and a brilliant subject painter, creating such scenes as In the Bower (c. 1880; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm).

In 1881-85 he traveled in Spain and Morocco; these experiences were transformed into the light-filled atmosphere of his paintings. He executed numerous works in a style accessible to popular taste.

Scandinavian Artists Breakfasting at the Café Ledoyen, Paris, on Salon Opening Day

The annual Salon provided the Scandinavian artists in Paris with an occasion for festivities, especially if at least one of them had submitted successfully. In the present painting Birger commemorated one such party in 1886. There is nothing Impressionist about the brushwork, but the subject and composition clearly owe something to Manet, Renoir, or Degas.