Gustavsbergs porslinsmuseum

Discover a blooming treasure of decor and design from the turn of the twentieth century. With his dazzling designs for Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory, Gunnar G:son Wennerberg came to be one of Sweden’s best loved designers around the turn of the twentieth century. Meet him here as flower painter, artist of industry and the designer who allowed nature to move in.

View of the exhibition Wennerberg – nature inside. Photo: Anna Danielsson/Nationalmuseum.

In this summer’s new exhibition at Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum, you can meet Gunnar G:son Wennerberg, an artist who came to be one of Sweden’s best loved designers in the period around the turn of the twentieth century. Perhaps you have come across his flowers before, as winding decorations on vases and tableware in glass, ceramic and porcelain. Here, you have the chance not just to discover Wennerberg as a flower painter, but also to find out more about his work as an artist in industry – as a designer of form and decor.

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg, Rudbeckia. Pencil and watercolour on paper. Part of a sketchbook.

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg for The Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory, vase with plant motif in green, 1900. Flintware decorated in sgrafitto technique in light and dark green glaze.

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg working on a large floor vase.

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg for The Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory, Vase decorated with yellow flower, manufactured 1897. Flintware.

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg together with George Lowndes, engraver, for The Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory, a pot and saucer in blue with lilies of the valley, ca 1896–1899. Stoneware, so-called jasperware, with relief decoration.

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg, for Kosta Glasbruk, Vase decorated with yellow chrysanthemum flowers against a milky white background, manufactured 1897–1900. Cameo glass.

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg, Autumn Flowers, Helenium and New York Aster, Signed 1910. Oil on canvas.

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg for The Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory, Oval bowl "Snowdrop", 1896. Flintware, painted in green and white with enamel paint.

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg, Sunflower. Pencil and watercolour on paper. Part of a sketchbook.

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg for the Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory, a vase decorated with irises and leaves in yellow, green and gold, light green background, 1897. Flint porcelain, painted decoration.

New ideas and artistic quality

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg (1863–1914) studied in Paris in the 1880s and specialised in flower painting. He returned to Sweden after a decade in Paris and in 1895 he was appointed by Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory. His assignment was to contribute new ideas and design goods with a high artistic quality that could make Gustavsberg more competitive. Wennerberg worked for Gustavsberg until 1909.

Nature inside

Wennerberg let nature moved indoors. His painstaking and perceptively drawn studies and watercolours of flowers and leaves became dazzling patterns on tableware and artefacts. Particular favourites were his patterns of simple, Swedish spring flowers, such as snowdrops, anemone hepatica, primulas and lilies of the valley. After a time at the factory, he also developed innovative new techniques, as well as designs and patterns with a new artistic expression that took Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory into the 20th century.

The window garden

Gunnar G:son Wennerberg’s interest in nature and botany was also expressed in designs for the so-called window garden. Interest in gardening was growing in the 19th century. Seeds, plants and bulbs from every corner of the world became available and when most people had better living conditions, in heated homes with large windows, there was an explosion of interest in indoor cultivation of flowering pot plants and tropical palms. With nature moving in in such a concrete way, plant pots and pedestals became important parts of the interior. Gustavsberg’s range grew and many of their most spectacular examples from the turn of the twentieth century were Wennerberg’s designs.

The exhibition is based on the Nationalmuseum’s collection and shows drawings, paintings, tableware, artefacts and glassware. There are also examples of Wennerberg’s interior design in the form of doors and walls that he painted for Henri Amic’s music room in Bouleaux in Gouvieux, north of Paris.