Nils Dardel

George Papazoff (a gift from the artist; born in 1894, Papazoff was from Yambol, Bulgaria. He studied in Prague and made frequent visits to Munich, Vienna and Berlin where he came into contact with Hans Hoffmann. In 1925 he exhibited two paintings at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris, alongside Miró, Ernst, Masson and Arp. Jaques Baron described his work as 'an irrational geometry within the inarguable charm that comes from spontaneous emotion.')
Rolf de Maré, Paris & Stockholm
Lars Nilsson

Stockholm, Moderna Museet; Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Nils Dardel, 1988, no. 53

Karl Asplund, Nils Dardel, Sveriges Allmäna Kunstförenings Publikation, 1957, vol. 1, p. 112f , discussed 

Not examined out of frame and under glass, the sheet is in good condition apart from a small (approx. 1 cm. long) vertical tear to the far left of the upper edge. The work is overall in good condition and has maintained the brightness of the colours, though with some scattered foxing and a stain with some flaking detritus to the upper right corner of the work. Held in a simple, modern, matte and reflective gold-painted moulded plaster and wood frame, under glass.
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Dardel spent the summers of 1915 and 1916 developing compositions inspired by the crowds at Sundet, in Eidsvoll in Norway. From these sketches Dardel worked up his important oil, Salvation Army, in which a group of young boys sing to the tones of five wind-instruments (fig. 1).

The grandson of the history painter Fritz von Dardel, Nils Dardel's aristocratic background enabled him to travel widely in Europe and throughout the world. After a short stint at the School of Art in Stockholm which he found overly conservative, he moved to Paris in 1910. Making contact with the Scandinavian contingent who were students of Matisse, Dardel would explore Cubism, Pointillism, and then develop his own brand of sophisticated naiveté. Although at one time a member of the Post-Impressionist group De Atta, Dardel's oeuvre is highly esoteric and often characterised by a satirical sharp-edged humour.

Fig. 1.: Nils Dardel, Salvation Army, Private Collection