Two Forgotten Names: Carl Hörvik and Björn Trägårdh

Anders Bengtsson Curator, Applied Art and Design

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume 22 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, © Stockholms Auktionsverk, Stockholm Graphic Design is published with generous support from (Fig. 5, p. 35) BIGG the Friends of the Nationalmuseum. © Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels (Fig. 2, p. 38) Layout Nationalmuseum collaborates with © Teylers Museum, Haarlem (Fig. 3, p. 39) Agneta Bervokk Svenska Dagbladet and Grand Hôtel Stockholm. © Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Shelfmark: We would also like to thank FCB Fältman & Riserva.S.81(int.2) (Fig. 2, p. 42) Translation and Language Editing Malmén. © Galerie Tarantino, Paris (Figs. 3–4, p. 43) Gabriella Berggren, Erika Milburn and © Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain Martin Naylor Cover Illustration (Figs. 3–4, pp. 46–47) Anne Vallayer (1744–1818), Portrait of a Violinist, © National Library of Sweden, Stockholm Publishing 1773. Oil on canvas, 116 x 96 cm. Purchase: (Figs. 5–6, pp. 48–49) Janna Herder (Editor) and Ingrid Lindell The Wiros Fund. Nationalmuseum, NM 7297. © Uppsala Auktionskammare, Uppsala (Publications Manager) (Fig. 1, p. 51) Publisher © Landsarkivet, Gothenburg/Johan Pihlgren Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum is published Berndt Arell, Director General (Fig. 3, p. 55) annually and contains articles on the history and © Västergötlands museum, Skara (Fig. 4, p. 55) theory of art relating to the collections of the Editor © Svensk Form Design Archive/Centre for Nationalmuseum. Janna Herder Business History (Fig. 2, p. 58) © Svenskt Tenn Archive and Collection, Nationalmuseum Editorial Committee Stockholm (Fig. 4, p. 60) Box 16176 Janna Herder, Linda Hinners, Merit Laine, © Denise Grünstein (Fig. 5, p. 152) SE–103 24 Stockholm, Sweden Lena Munther, Magnus Olausson, Martin Olin, © The National Gallery, London (Figs. 1–3, 6–7, www.nationalmuseum.se Maria Perers and Lidia Westerberg Olofsson 17, pp. 167–169, 172–173, 179) © Nationalmuseum, the authors and the owners © The National Museum of Art, Architecture and of the reproduced works Photographs Design, Oslo/Jarre Anne Hansteen, CC-BY-NC Nationalmuseum Photographic Studio/ (Fig. 8, p. 174) ISSN 2001-9238 Linn Ahlgren, Bodil Beckman, Erik Cornelius, © Nicholas Penny (Figs. 9–10, 12–14, 16, Anna Danielsson, Cecilia Heisser, Per-Åke Persson pp. 175, 177, 179) and Hans Thorwid © Museum Gustavianum, Uppsala (Fig. 11, p. 176) Picture Editor © Getty Museum CC-BY. Digital image courtesy of Rikard Nordström the Gettys Open Content Program (Fig. 15, p. 178) Photo Credits © The Swedish Royal Court/Håkan Lind © Samlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, (Fig. 9, p. 188) Hamburg (Fig. 5, p. 15) © Eva-Lena Bergström (Figs. 1, 3–4, 6–7, 9, © Museum Bredius The Hague (Fig. 6, p. 16) pp. 191–192, 194–196, 198) © The National Museum of Art, Architecture and © Statens Museum for Kunst/National Gallery of Design, Oslo/Jacques Lathion (Fig. 2, p. 23) Denmark, Copenhagen, CC-PD (Fig. 2, p. 193) © Kalmar läns museum, Kalmar/Rolf Lind © The Nordic Museum, Stockholm/Karolina (Fig. 3, p. 27) Kristensson (Fig. 5, p. 195)

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 22, 2015 acquisitions/carl hörvik and björn trägårdh

Two Forgotten Names: Carl Hörvik and Björn Trägårdh

Anders Bengtsson Curator, Applied Art and Design

Fig. 1 Carl Hörvik (1882–1954), Cabinet and armchairs, 1925. Produced by Nordiska Kompaniet. Oak, partly veneered, gilded, iron, H. 173 cm (cabinet). Oak, partly veneered, cane, horsehair, H. 80 cm (armchairs). Gift of Ernst and Carl Hirsch through the Friends of the Nationalmuseum, and of the Friends of the Nationalmuseum. Nationalmuseum, NMK 91/2015 and NMK 92–93/2015.

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terials and design, these pieces are clearly luxury objects. The cabinet and the chairs are made of oak inlaid with various other woods, the chair backs are of woven rattan cane, and the seats are upholstered in hor- sehair. The cabinet is intended to be viewed with the doors open, and has three gilded niches for the display of works of decorative art. The Nationalmuseum already had in its collections the diploma Carl Hörvik recei- ved in connection with the exhibition and the chandelier, designed by Carl Bergsten, that was displayed with his furniture.1 Carl Hörvik (born Nilsson, 1882– 1954)2 was a native of Hörvik in Blekinge and was to take the name of his birthplace as his surname. He trained as an architect at Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Techno- logy (KTH), graduating in 1909 together with the better-known Gunnar Asplund. Hörvik was regarded in his day as an ar- Fig. 2 The Swedish pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition of 1925. Furniture designed by chitect of great talent, and set up his own Carl Hörvik (1882–1954) and produced by Nordiska Kompaniet. practice as early as 1913, at the age of 31. He worked on the interior of the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg in 1916 and began In 2015 the Nationalmuseum’s exhibition coratifs et industriels modernes was to prove designing furniture for Nordiska Kompani- Women Pioneers: Swedish Design in Between the a major success for Sweden, which – after et the following year. Hörvik took part in Wars, shown at Läckö Castle and Natio- the host nation France – won more awards many of the most important exhibitions in nalmuseum Design at Kulturhuset Stads- than any other country participating, clai- Sweden and abroad during the 1920s and teatern in Stockholm, gave prominence ming no fewer than 36 Grands Prix, 100 1930s, often with great success. In 1937, as to a number of women designers working gold medals and numerous honourable the recession began to bite, he took up a in the interwar years – many of them now mentions. position as an architect with the Swedish forgotten and unknown to the general The Swedish exhibits and the Swedish Royal Air Force Administration and, from public (see articles on pp. 61 and 163). pavilion, designed by Carl Bergsten, repre- that point on, seems to have given up desig- Some male designers from the period have sented a restrained, pared-down classicism ning for other clients. For a long time Hör- also been forgotten by all but a small circle. that garnered acclaim from the internatio- vik was a forgotten name, and it was only Among them are Carl Hörvik (1882–1954) nal critics of the day. The pavilion was pro- in the 1980s, as some of his furniture from and Björn Trägårdh (1908–1988), who me- vided with a suite of furniture designed by the major exhibitions began to appear in rit renewed attention on account of acquisi- Carl Hörvik (Fig. 2) and made by Nordis- sales, that he deservedly attracted renewed tions made by the Nationalmuseum in the ka Kompaniet (NK), Sweden’s leading de- attention as a furniture designer. Today, he past year. partment store at the time. The furniture is one of the most acclaimed Swedish desig- During 2015, the Museum received – consisting of a cabinet, a table, sofas, arm- ners internationally. a magnificent gift from Ernst and Carl chairs and tabourets – won a Grand Prix, Like most architects of his generation, Hirsch, father and son, who together with the highest accolade of the exhibition. It Carl Hörvik abandoned the classicism the Friends of the Nationalmuseum dona- is monumental in character, with clear in- of the 1920s to wholeheartedly embrace ted a cabinet and two armchairs that were spiration from Classical and Egyptian an- functionalism. At the Stockholm Exhibition of part of a suite of furniture designed by tiquity – the tomb of Tutankhamen had 1930, he mainly showed tubular-steel furni- Carl Hörvik for the Swedish pavilion at the been discovered in 1922, and the new finds ture in this new style. Paris International Exhibition of 1925 (Fig. were to have a major influence, not only Björn Trägårdh, who belonged to a 1). The Exposition internationale des arts dé- on Hörvik’s work. With their exclusive ma- younger generation of designers, began

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Fig. 3 Design attributed to Björn Trägårdh (1908–1988), Armchairs, Modell nr 184 (Model no. 184), c. 1930–32. Produced by Svenskt Tenn, 1930s. Wood, padding, textile, leather, H. 76 cm. Purchase: Barbro Osher Fund. Nationalmuseum, NMK 216–217/2015.

to collaborate with Estrid Ericson and the with original covers of striped woollen fa- tic grounds, but we do not know for sure. firm of Svenskt Tenn in 1928, at the age of bric, velvet and leather. The functionalism In the case of furniture, design drawings just 20. Trägårdh’s future wife, the textile of Björn Trägårdh and Svenskt Tenn was can be found in Svenskt Tenn’s order ca- artist Göta Hellström (Trägårdh), who was never intended for a mass market; these talogues, but usually with no indication of already working in the Svenskt Tenn shop, were handcrafted luxury pieces, ill suited to their creators (Fig. 4). One example of the provided the link.3 Both Trägårdh and his the more social aims of the Swedish Society difficulties involved in attributing a design wife-to-be were studying at the time at the of Crafts and Design (Svenska Slöjdfören- is a mirror acquired by the Nationalmuse- Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. ingen). um in 2013. It belonged to Trägårdh him- Ericson saw his talent and engaged him to Part of the reason Trägårdh was for self and was not stamped by Svenskt Tenn. create pewter pieces that were in keeping many years relatively unknown as a desig- The decoration consists of a “panama” pat- with the new functionalism of the period. ner is that Estrid Ericson rarely gave pro- tern, which was also used by Estrid Ericson At the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930, a tea minence to the people who designed her and has traditionally been ascribed to her, service designed by Trägårdh was shown, its products; the emphasis was always on the based on an anecdote citing her husband’s teapot consisting of a rectangular box with trademark Svenskt Tenn. In general, there- panama hat as the inspiration. However, a spout and handle – entirely in line with fore, the firm’s pewter objects from this pe- Ericson did not meet her future husband contemporary ideals.4 In time, Trägårdh riod were never signed with the designers’ until 1939, and the first hallmarked objects would also design entire interiors and fur- names, with the exception of Anna Petrus’s with the panama pattern were made as ear- niture for Svenskt Tenn. In 2015 the Muse- work, as she insisted on it. This makes it dif- ly as 1930. um acquired a pair of armchairs attributed ficult to say who designed what in Svenskt In parallel with his work for Svenskt to him, a purchase made possible by the Tenn’s early production. Most of the Tenn, Trägårdh was active as an artist and Barbro Osher Fund (Fig. 3). The chairs items now sold under the name of Björn dreamt of being able to support himself as are functionalist in character, cube-shaped Trägårdh are attributed to him on stylis- a painter. Following a crisis in the family,

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thing in common, giving up furniture de- sign relatively early in their careers. Hör- vik’s employment with the Royal Air Force Administration can be seen as a “retirement post” forced on him by a harsh economic reality. Trägårdh’s work with buttons for French fashion houses was of course a form of artistic activity, but can also be interpre- ted as a way of putting bread on the table when he was unable to earn enough from painting. His work as a furniture designer, meanwhile, fell into oblivion, with one refe- rence work on 20th-century Swedish furni- ture making no mention of him at all.5 Carl Hörvik’s cabinet and armchairs and the chairs attributed to Björn Trägårdh are very important as part of the National- museum’s endeavour to strengthen its col- lection of early 20th-century applied art. In the last 30 years, much of the magnificent Swedish furniture made for the major ex- hibitions of the 1920s and 1930s has been sold abroad, partly perhaps because the Swedish public have not set enough store by it. There have been no legal safeguards to prevent such pieces being exported,6 as there are for 18th-century Swedish furnitu- re for example, even though these exclusi- ve 20th-century designs have always been rarer, produced as they were in limited editions. Today, very little of this furniture remains in the country.

Notes: 1. Anders Bengtsson, Helena Kåberg and Cilla Robach, “Swedish Design in Paris 1925”, in Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm, Volume 18, 2011, Stockholm 2012, pp. 43–46. 2. The biographical information that follows is from Svenskt Möbellexikon, vol. 2, Malmö 1961, pp. 109–113, and Svenska Möbler 1890–1990, Monica Boman (ed.), Lund 1991, pp. 146–147. 3. The biographical data given here are from Hedvig Hedqvist, Rikard Jacobson and Jan von Fig. 4 Design drawings, Svenskt Tenn’s order catalogue. Svenskt Tenn Archive and Collections. Gerber, Modernt Svenskt Tenn, Stockholm 2004, pp. 52–55, and Svenskt Möbellexikon, vol. 3, Malmö 1962, pp. 961–962. he left Sweden in 1936, at the same time materials such as straw and plaster. After the 4. Estrid Ericson: Orkidé i vinterlandet, Monica Boman (ed.), Stockholm 1989, pp. 76–77. as Ericson had appointed Josef Frank as war, he created exclusive buttons for Schia- 5. Svenska möbler 1890–1990, Monica Boman the company’s principal designer. Trägårdh parelli, Balenciaga, Balmain and other fa- (ed.), Stockholm 1991. settled in Paris and started a new family. shion houses. 6. Current Swedish legislation only protects During the Second World War he earned Although Hörvik and Trägårdh belong- Swedish-made furniture from before 1860. a living making buttons and jewellery from ed to different generations, they had one

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