Ivar Arosenius
Venus and Diogenes , 1908
Watercolour on paper (4)
Each 9 x 14.3 cm (image size)
Each 3 1/2 x 5 5/8 in (image size)
Each 3 1/2 x 5 5/8 in (image size)
Clase Fine Art
Further images
Venus och Diogenes is the final set of images where Ivar Arosenius used his idiosyncratic style and humour to create his own versions of classic tales. Ben Onis dröm at...
Venus och Diogenes is the final set of images where Ivar Arosenius used his idiosyncratic style and humour to create his own versions of classic tales. Ben Onis dröm at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and Leda och svanen at the Gothenburg Museum of Art are the most notable other examples.
First we are presented with Diogenes lying in his barrel, sceptically observing Venus. She tries to tempt him with an apple and her curves. Empty beer-bottles are strewn around his abode. In the second sequence, Diogenes crawls out from his barrel. Venus awaits his advance with an assumed air of modesty.
In the third image we are shown that Diogenes has taken the apple and ignored her. Venus is apparently in a state of shock. Finally, the philosopher has lain down to rest. the butterflies that surrounded Venus almost like a halo seem to have departed, and she walks away dejected.
The landscape in the background is, as so often in his last years, taken from the landscape around Arosenius’s home at Älvängen.
First we are presented with Diogenes lying in his barrel, sceptically observing Venus. She tries to tempt him with an apple and her curves. Empty beer-bottles are strewn around his abode. In the second sequence, Diogenes crawls out from his barrel. Venus awaits his advance with an assumed air of modesty.
In the third image we are shown that Diogenes has taken the apple and ignored her. Venus is apparently in a state of shock. Finally, the philosopher has lain down to rest. the butterflies that surrounded Venus almost like a halo seem to have departed, and she walks away dejected.
The landscape in the background is, as so often in his last years, taken from the landscape around Arosenius’s home at Älvängen.
Provenance
Eva Arosenius (Lillan);
Acquired from the above by Ernst Bauer-Albrechtson;
Thence by descent until sold at;
Stockholms Auktionsverk, December 2004, Lot 2036;
Where acquired by a private European collector
Exhibitions
Gothenburg Museum of Art, "Ivar Arosenius Minnesutställning",
1958-59.
Literature
Asplund, 1928, p 236 & plate 45
Sandström, 1959, pp 217-18;
Malm, 2022, illustrations pp 138-9