"Bringing the Museum to You"

The Cyber Art Show continues our study of Impressionist landscape painters in the Public Domain with a two-part Exhibition of works by Swedish artist Alfred Wahlberg (1834-1906). Born Herman Alfred Leonard Wahlberg in Stockholm, Alfred grew up in a creative household‒his father was a professional artist and his mother the daughter of an Italian sculptor. Desiring that their son become a professional musician, they enrolled him in the Stockholm Municipal Academy of Classical Piano. But Alfred had other plans. After receiving preparatory education at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, Wahlberg moved to Düsseldorf in 1857 to train. He became associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting and sold his first piece at age 22. He would later travel extensively, studying art in Germany, Holland, and Belgium before returning to Stockholm for ten years.

Eventually Wahlberg found his way to France, where he would become influenced by the French Impressionists for a time and where he would enjoy great career success. In 1878, Wahlberg won Medal 1st Class at the World’s Fair. He took a professorial degree in 1880 at the Swedish Academy of Art. Wahlberg eventually returned to the Scandinavian style for which he would become renowned. Alfred’s career peaked in the 1880’s while interning in Dusseldorf with the Norwegian-born Swedish artist Hans Gude. Nearly every summer he made a short return to Sweden to study nature in places such as Stockholm archipelago, Skåne, Halland, and Värmland. He died on 4 October 1906 in Tranås, Sweden at 72.