J.A.G. Acke
Biography
Johan Axel Gustaf Acke, better known by the signature J.A.G. Acke, was born on April 7, 1859, in Bergielund near Stockholm, into a cultured family. His father, Nils Johan Andersson, was a renowned botanist and director of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, while his mother, Anna Tigerhielm, came from a family with strong artistic traditions. From an early age, Acke grew up in an intellectual environment that nurtured his artistic sensibilities.
At the age of just 14, he enrolled at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied painting under Edvard Perséus. He later broadened his training through several study trips to Paris, Belgium, and the Netherlands, developing interests in landscape painting, engraving, illustration, and decorative techniques.
In the 1880s, Acke joined the Önningeby artists’ colony in the Åland Islands, led by Victor Westerholm. There, surrounded by a circle of Nordic artists, he painted luminous landscapes inspired by open-air settings and rural life. It was during this time that he formed a deep friendship with fellow Scandinavian painter Anna Wengberg.
In 1891, he married Eva Topelius, daughter of the famous Finnish writer Zachris Topelius. The couple settled in Vaxholm, in a villa he designed himself, which he named Villa Akleja. In 1904, he officially changed his surname from Andersson to Acke. In 1903, Eva and Johan adopted an Italian child, Fausto.
Acke developed a multifaceted body of work: he was a painter, illustrator, sculptor, muralist, and amateur architect. His paintings, often imbued with Symbolism, explored themes drawn from nature, mythology, and Swedish philosophy, particularly the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. One of his major works, The Temple of the Forest (1901), held at the Thiel Gallery, expresses a pantheistic and vitalist vision of the world.
He was also active in the restoration of medieval frescoes—most notably at Uppsala Cathedral—and created numerous decorative works for castles and public buildings, including the frescoes in Stockholm City Hall between 1920 and 1923, in collaboration with architect Ragnar Östberg. His taste for ornamentation and the integration of various art forms aligned him with Scandinavian Art Nouveau.
Acke also painted portraits—of Verner von Heidenstam, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, members of the Bonnier family, and his wife Eva. He was known for his sensitivity to light and atmosphere, which evolved further after a 1912 trip to Brazil, where the tropical light expanded his chromatic palette.
J.A.G. Acke died suddenly on September 5, 1924, in Vaxholm, while working on a new cycle of allegorical frescoes for the Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. Although his work fell into relative obscurity during the 20th century, it experienced a revival of interest in the early 21st century, especially in connection with renewed studies of the Önningeby artists’ colony and Nordic vitalism.
Bibliography
Books:
Torsten Gunnarsson, J.A.G. Acke and Nordic Romanticism, Stockholm, Atlantis, 1991.
Carl-Gustaf Laurin, J.A.G. Acke: Painter, Sculptor, Human Being, Stockholm, Bonnier, 1926.
Bo Lindwall, The Life of a Nordic Artistic Generation: Acke and His Circle, Uppsala, Society for Art History, 1974.
Exhibition Catalogues:
J.A.G. Acke: A Romantic at the Turn of the Century in Sweden, Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm, 1992.
Symbolism and National Romanticism in Sweden, Gothenburg Museum of Art, 1985 (group exhibition).
J.A.G. Acke and the Artists’ Association, Liljevalchs Art Gallery, Stockholm, 2004.
Articles and Journals:
Per Bjurström, “J.A.G. Acke and the Artists’ Archipelago,” Konsthistorisk Tidskrift, vol. 45, 1976, pp. 101–112.
Ingrid Ingelman, “The Nordic Mood in Acke’s Landscapes,” Swedish Art Historical Yearbook, no. 58, 1987, pp. 55–67.
Märta Lindqvist, “Acke and the Ideals of the Turn of the Century,” Word and Image, vol. 38, 1924, pp. 241–248.
Åsa Bharathi Larsson, “The Mystical Nature of J.A.G. Acke,” Journal of Art History, vol. 79, 2010, pp. 89–102.
