Nils Dardel

Halfdan Mustad, Lysaker, Norway (acquired at the Oslo exhibition in 1919. Mustad, 1871-1948, was a businessman and shipping magnate, being co-owner of the shipping firm O. Mustad & Søn); thence by descent to the present owners

Kristiania (Oslo), 1919
Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall, 1919
Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall, 1939
Stockholm, Moderna Museet & Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs: Nils Dardel, 1988, no. 112, pl. 23, illustrated in the catalogue (as Yngling i svart, flicka i vitt & Jeune homme en noir, jeune fille en blanc)

Karl Asplund, Nils Dardel, Stockholm, 1957, p. 191, illustrated
Ingemar Lindahl, Visit hos excentrisk herre, Stockholm, 1980, p. 87
Erik Näslund, Nils Dardel, Stockholm, 1988, pp. 142, 146, 150, 157 & 286

The following condition report has been provided by Jane McAusland FIIC, of Nether Hall Barn, Suffolk, IP14 4PP: Support This watercolour and gouache painting is fully adhered to a board. The paper it is executed upon appears to be a strong, wove type and the condition appears to be very good. Medium The watercolour and gouache medium is in a bright, unfaded condition. Some red pigment has fallen onto the surface of the image, probably in the artist's studio, and there is a small amount to the left of the woman's head indicating it is the same pigment as her lips. There are smaller areas of pigment and areas where larger amounts have been removed in a fairly rough fashion, indicating to me that this damage was done by the artist and as much as possible removed by him (on the tree in the foreground and to the left of the female figure). Some of these areas have been retouched. The surface shows a few small scratches and imperfections.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Painted at the height of Dardel's career, when the artist was enjoying considerable critical acclaim, Young Man in Black, Girl in White captures an intense moment in the artist's personal life. Dardel had fallen in love with Nita Wallenberg after the two met in Japan in 1917. A secret engagement followed, however Nita's father Gustaf, of the prominent Swedish Wallenberg banking dynasty, found the young bohemian Dardel to be an unsuitable match, and firmly put an end to their liaison and any hopes of marriage.

The bitter-sweet juxtaposition of the lovers, their backs turned while they stand perched precariously on a cliff, represents this final impasse in the couple's relationship in 1919. The emotions that rack their private thoughts are suggested in the tortured branches and jagged leaves of the tree behind them, their sorrow palpable at the time of their separation, while the boat to the left may refer to the couple's longed-for happiness sailing away from them. Alternatively, in a visual pun typical of Dardel's playful wit, the boat may refer to Nita Wallenberg's name: having been baptised Sassnitza, after the ferry-line which ran between Sweden and Germany, it was by the shortened name Nita that she was widely known.

Dardel evidently regarded the motif of the couple in the present work as an effective summary of his state of mind in 1919, using it again amidst the frolicking in The Pleasant Summer Sunday (fig. 1). At the same time, the present work's atmosphere of introspection and sorrow had also been powerfully evoked by Edvard Munch in The Separation (fig. 2), the Norwegian painter's example much-admired by the Swede Dardel.

After a short time at the School of Art in Stockholm, which he found too conservative, Dardel travelled for the first time to Paris in 1910. There he made contact with the Scandinavian artists who were pupils of Matisse and with them made his début in Stockholm in 1912 as a member of the Man of the Year 1909 group. In the present work, the flattened planes of the composition and linear execution of the figures are also informed by prints and woodcuts he had seen during his Japan trip in 1917, the raw passion of this work heightened by the finesse of execution.
 
During a trip to Paris by boat in 1919, the year this work was finished, Dardel met his future wife, the artist Thora Klinckowström, who was later portrayed by Modigliani.