Eigil Schwab

Eigil Vilhelm Schwab was a Swedish painter, graphic designer, illustrator and cartoonist. He started his career as a portrait painter, but was very early attracted to satirical political cartoons, which were published in newspapers and magazines including Söndagsnisse, Strix and Dagens Nyheter. With his approach becoming more “painty”, he illustrated books and designed book covers. One of his most important works was the illustration of a multi-volume work on Sweden with watercolors. He later painted mainly landscapes and still life, but also took up ceramics and glass painting.

Schwab studied at the Art and Design School and later at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, both in Stockholm. In 1909 he received a travel grant, which allowed him to visit Germany and France, where he was inspired by the Impressionists, In the 1920s, he travelled extensively even to Russia and North Africa. His son Per Eigil Schwab (1911-71) became a painter, stage designer and theater director.

Among Schwab’s numerous paintings of sailing boats and ships, Segelbåt Tillhavs (Sailing Boat off the Coast) is a gouache in the format 46 x 39 cm. It is a candidate for the submitted work, titled Sailing in Fresh Breeze.