Carl Johan Forsberg – Roda Rosengarten

Carl Johan Forsberg (1868–1938), Roda Rosengarten, circa 1920, watercolor on paper, 52 x 73 cm.

This watercolor by Carl Johan Forsberg evokes with rare poetic intensity the fleeting moment when the Dolomites blaze under the last rays of the sun — a phenomenon known as enrosadira. The rosy light gently caresses the rocky peaks, while the valleys gradually sink into the bluish shadows of the evening. Through a subtle play of transparencies, Forsberg succeeds in conveying the silent breath of the landscape and the suspended magic of the instant.

Carl Johan Forsberg (1871–1935) was a Swedish artist trained at the Royal Polytechnic School of Stockholm, where he studied architecture. After attending the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, he gradually turned his career toward painting, finding watercolor to be his favored medium. A great traveler, he journeyed across Europe — notably Italy and France — drawing landscapes with precise delicacy. Long distanced from official artistic circles, Forsberg developed a deeply personal body of work, marked by an almost topographical attention to nature and a keen sensitivity to color.

Today, one of his works is held at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, a sign of a late but deserved recognition for this discreet artist profoundly attached to the beauty of the world.