Jansson (March 18, 1862 - June 15, 1915) could be described as the first gay Swedish painter. His academic painting career started fairly conventionally as he began studies in 1878 at Slojdskolan (later known as the Technical School). However upon meeting painters returning from France, he joined a Swedish avant-garde movement known as the Opponents who showed their work independently. Jansson stayed with the group which later became known as the League of Artists to its conclusion.

1915 Ring Gymnast - Eugene Jansson

Jansson travelled rarely evidenced by his paintings of mostly Stockholm scenes. He lived with his mother and was a recluse, somewhat owing to a hearing loss that resulted from a childhood illness. His work was somber, mystical, and mostly blue. An important influence was Edvard Munch.

Riding Waves

As his sense of isolation increased he painted less and less and ceased exhibiting his work. In 1907 he began painting again, and his output was prolific. He concentrated on the male nude, a subject he had always wanted to explore, but could not until he was established and financially secure. His desire to depict the naked male form coincided perfectly with the rise of the Vitalism Movement in Northern Europe.

In 1907 Jansson's new direction was launched with a monumental painting, Naken yngling (Naked Young Man). It depicted his close companion Knut Hyman in the gymnasium. Jansson and Nyman became friends at the Naval bath-house in Stockholm, where Jansson was a visitor. The two men shared a home in Jansson's studio until 1912.

 Naken Yngling (Naked Young Man)

The sense of freedom Swedish artist Eugene Jansson must have felt when he turned from blue landscapes to nude male gymnasts and sailors pulsates in his artwork.  

A Pre-1907 Night Landscape

And while we may look at this sharp turn in subject matter, Jansson's relationship with Hyman, and Jansson's growing time spent at the gymnasium and bath house as a fair indiction of open homosexuality, it was not commonly known information.   Art historians and critics often avoid the issue of any possible homoerotic tendencies in male nude art. They toe the line about classicism and the male ideal. But Jansson was apparently so comfortable with his naked gymnast and sailor models that he painted a self-portrait at the bath house -- although he was completely clothed and the other members were nude. This self portrait looks prim and detached, but there are photographs of Jansson nude and participating in the exercises that show a very healthy and fit middle-aged man with an admirable physique.

A Gallery Showing of Jansson's Work Indicated the Scale of the Paintings

Jansson produced several monumental paintings depicting the same bath-house, and continued painting naked athletes until an attack of cerebral haemorrhage ended his life. As homosexuality was illegal in Sweden until 1944 his brother, Adrian Jansson, a homosexual, survived Eugene by many years, destroyed all his letters and many other papers, possibly to avoid scandal.

Jansson's parents belonged to a social stratum straddling the working and the lower middle class, but they were interested in art and music and ambitious for their two sons, Eugène and his younger brother Adrian. Eugène went to the German School in Stockholm and took piano lessons. An attack of scarlet fever at the age of fourteen caused him health issues from which he suffered for the rest of his life, including bad eyesight and hearing and chronic kidney problems.  

 End of the Road

He lived his whole life together with his mother and brother at Södermalm, the southern part of Stockholm. They eventually settled in a flat at No. 40 Bastugatan, on a height with a view over most of central Stockholm including the Riddarfjärden bay and the Old town. Most of his paintings from the 1890s up to 1904 are night views over Riddarfjärden, as he would have seen it from his home, or street views from various parts of Södermalm. They are dominated by shades of blue and very visible brush strokes, often crossing one another. Over the years his paintings moved towards increasing simplification and abstraction, and at the end of his "blue" period, little more than the street lights and their reflections in the waters can be discerned from the mass of blue of the canvas.

Eugene Jansson - Self Portrait 

After 1904, when he had already achieved success with his Stockholm views, Jansson confessed to a friend that he felt absolutely exhausted and had no more wish to continue with what he had done until then. He stopped participating in exhibitions for several years and went over to figure painting. To combat the health issues he had suffered from since childhood, he became a diligent swimmer and winter bather, often visiting the navy bathhouse, where he found the new subjects for his paintings. He painted groups of sunbathing sailors, and young muscular nude men lifting weights or doing other physical exercises.

Eugene Jansson - Bath Hut

Art historians and critics have long avoided the issue of any possible homoerotic tendencies in this later phase of his art, but later studies (see Brummer 1999) have established that Jansson was in all probability homosexual and appears to have had a relationship with at least one of his models. His brother, Adrian Jansson, who was himself homosexual and survived Eugène by many years, burnt all his letters and many other papers, possibly to avoid scandal (homosexuality was illegal in Sweden until 1944).

 Pushing Weights - Eugene Jansson

Jansson enrolled in the Tekniska skolan (now Konstfack) and studied with Edvard Perséus, a painter who ran a private art school in Stockholm. He was accepted into the Antique school of the Royal Swedish Academy of Artsin 1881, but did not have the means to follow most of his contemporaries to Paris for further studies.

Sunset - Eugene Jansson

Remaining in Stockholm, which supplied him most of his motifs, his first trip outside the Nordic countries would come in 1900, when he had already become well-established as a painter and his economic situation had started to improve. In his youth, he assisted Perséus in his portrait production and painted some still lifes, but he eventually found his favourite motifs in the city surrounding him.

Night Sky - Eugene Jansson 

 To combat the health issues he had suffered from since childhood, he became a diligent swimmer and winter bather, often visiting the navy bathhouse, where he found the new subjects for his paintings. He painted groups of sunbathing sailors, and young muscular nude men lifting weights or doing other physical exercises. Little is known about Jansson’s personal life, but it’s widely accepted that Jansson was a gay man. Homosexuality was illegal in Sweden until 1944.

Bathsump - Eugene Jansson

Boys on Beach - Eugene Jansson

Pushing Weights with Two Arms - Eugene Jansson

Pushing Weights with One Arm - Eugene Jansson