Egron Lundgren

Egron Sellif Lundgren was a Swedish painter and author who specialized in watercolors.

His father, Erik Lundgren, was a manufacturer. After 1829, he studied at the Teknologiska institutet with a focus on "bergshantering" (a form of resource management). After graduating, he worked in Eskilstuna and at the cannon foundry in Finspång. This type of work was apparently not to his liking as, in 1835, he enrolled at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts to pursue a childhood interest in watercolors. He studied there until 1839, then went to Paris, where he copied paintings in the Louvre and took advanced courses in the studios of Léon Cogniet.

From 1841 to 1849, he lived in Italy; mostly with the Scandinavian community in Rome, then spent four years in Spain. In both places, he produced historical and folkloric scenes; mostly done in watercolors. Thanks to scholarships from the Royal Academy, he was also able to spend some time studying in Munich and Vienna. In Spain, he largely abandoned oil painting and gave up the idea of being a history painter. Instead, he focused on genre scenes, featuring the local people, market life and public festivities.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023