The directory «Artists»

Mazer Carl Peter
(1807—1884)

Swedish painter, draughtsman and photographer. The son of a French emigrant, he studied at the Kungliga Akademi för de Fria Konsterna in Stockholm and then for several years, from 1825, with Antoine-Jean Gros in Paris. Mazer was not, however, notably influenced by the style of Gros, although he was entrusted with the underpainting in some of Gros’s historical compositions. Mazer is believed to have fought at the barricades in Paris during the revolution of 1830; several of his drawings show fighting in the streets. After a stay in Italy he spent the years 1835–8 in Sweden and Finland painting portraits. The tonality of these works is generally dark and their psychological expression sometimes intense. Several of them portray well-known Nordic writers and artists such as the poet C. J. L. Almquist (1835; Stockholm, Nordiska Mus.). From 1838 to 1854 Mazer lived in various parts of the Russian Empire: in St Petersburg, Yaroslavl’, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan’, Siberia and the Ukraine. He also spent three years in China. In his autobiographical notes and letters his activities during this period are well documented, but the many portraits he painted are largely untraced. Some, such as Chinese Merchants (Stockholm, Nmus.), are notable for adhering to Far Eastern compositional and colouristic devices.

Finland, 1948, Johan Ludvig Runeberg

Finland, 1955, Johan Jakob Nervander

Rumania, 1952, Nikolay Gogol, Taras Bulba

Rumania, 1952, Nikolay Gogol

Sweden, 1966, Karl Almqvist

Sweden, 1966, Karl Almqvist