Nils Kreuger

Biography

Nils Kreuger grew up in Kalmar. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1874 and attended Edvard Perséus's painting school from 1878. Thereafter, he relocated to Paris, becoming a member of the renowned Grez-sur-Loing artists' colony. In 1883, he made his debut at the Paris Salon, where he continued to exhibit the following years. Kreuger moved from Paris to Varberg in 1887, where he and Richard Bergh and Karl Nordström founded the Varberg School. In 1896, Kreuger made Stockholm his permanent residence, spending his summers on the island of Öland. There, he painted cows, horses, and coastal landscapes. Kreuger is best known as a landscape painter. In the 1890s, he was among the artists who shifted their focus from plein air painting to the National Romantic style. The artist developed his own style of color-spot painting, characterized by a lighter color palette and the use of mosaic-like dots. This style was likely influenced by the Pointillism and Art Nouveau movements. Kreuger's artistic oeuvre also includes book art, commercial illustration, and several murals. The Thiel Collection contains thirty-five works by Kreuger.