Svenolov Ehrén

My interest in Svenolov Ehrén began when I bought an item at an auction after his death. The goal is to exhibit the collections in an Open exhibit but not right now. Click on the link "Svenolov Ehrén" above and you will find my collection.

Biography

Svenolov Ehrén was born in Stockholm on October 25, 1927. His parents were Sven Hilmer Ehrén and Elsa Rut Edit Ehrén. The parents were not poor as Sven was the director of Wasa's crispbread sales center in Stockholm. Svenolov had a brother and a sister. For a period, the family left Stockholm, but they returned when Svenolov was 15 years old. Four years later, in 1946, Svenolov managed to persuade his father to pay for a year of art studies with the artist Otto Sköld. These studies led to his admission to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1948, where he stayed until 1952. After that, he traveled to Paris and Spain, where he spent time with Jan Myrdahl and his late and very good friend Stig Slas Claesson. Back in Stockholm, he created paintings for the working people against capital, for socialism and communism, which were not always so popular. After a number of economically difficult years, he finally managed to make a living from his art.

Svenolov Ehrén passed away on January 26, 2004 and he became 76 years old.

Illustrated stamps

In the early 1970s, Svenolov was commissioned by the Swedish Post Office to illustrate a new stamp. This eventually led to him to illustrate one German and 69 Swedish stamps.

1970-02-09 Timber rafting (stamp 1)

According to Christina Jägerbäck’s conversation with Svenolov Ehrén in Postryttaren 1992, Svenolov commented on the issue as follows: “My first faltering steps. I used photographic material as the basis for the original, which I made as a linocut.” Steel engraving in two colors: blue and brown-black.

1970-06-05 Around the Arctic Circle (stamps 2–5)

According to Christina Jägerbäck’s conversation with Svenolov Ehrén in Postryttaren 1992, Svenolov commented on the issue as follows: “I made four of the five stamps in the issue. The fifth is an image of foam. The images were supposed to be connected to reality, so I started from existing material, mainly photographs. The colours were distributed so that the stamps became single-colour. Steel engraving in three colours: brown-black, blue and green.

1970-09-28 Swedish Industry (stamps 6–11)

According to Christina Jägerbäck’s conversation with Svenolov Ehrén in Postryttaren 1992, Svenolov commented on the issue as follows: “It was my idea to let a continuous image run across several stamps. It had never been done before. The tractor in the upper left stamp continues into the stamp to the right, where boats are being loaded. A boat hull continues into the shipyard industry stamp. Down to the left there is a waterfall with a locomotive pulling a line of wagons into the next stamp. The last stamp depicts research and development technologies, and that stamp we couldn't integrate with the other stamps. Steel engraving in three colours: blue, yellow-brown and brown-violet.”

1971-06-04 Container Transport (stamp 12)

According to Christina Jägerbäck’s conversation with Svenolov Ehrén in Postryttaren 1992, Svenolov commented on the issue as follows: “When I was going to create this stamp, I went down to Gothenburg and sat in the harbor drawing. I also brought my camera with me. But despite that, the image is completely constructed; in reality, it is not possible to see the container crane with the bridge in the background.” Steel engraving in two colors: blue and ultramarine.

1972-05-08 In Southeast (stamp 13)

According to Christina Jägerbäck’s conversation with Svenolov Ehrén in Postryttaren 1992, Svenolov commented on the issue as follows: “According to the assignment, I was to depict the newly built bridge to Öland, and I thought that was impossible! Just a couple of years earlier the bridge to Tjörn was issued. What was left to do on the bridge theme? But then I realized that the boat that appears in the swedish film ‘The Emigrants’ was registered in Byxelkrok on Öland. I was able to borrow photografs which allowed me to reconstruct it. I needed a good picture of the bridge and found a little boy with a boat. We went out to the bridge, lay underneath it and I took photographs. In an interview I mentioned the boy’s name and said that he was just as much the creator as I was, and in one of the stamp catalogues it says that the image is made after a photo by Lennart Sandström – but that doesn’t matter.” Steel engraving in one colour: blue.

1973-09-22 Towards Distant Goals (stamp 14-18)

According to Christina Jägerbäck’s conversation with Svenolov Ehrén in Postryttaren 1992, Svenolov commented on the issue as follows: “Here is the double inking consistently carried out, and this is the first time it has been done. Slania and the guys in the printing house did a fantastic job .” Steel engraving in three colours: green, brown and blue.