The three Graces

1928

Dick Beer was a great painter of nudes. “I hardly know of any other Swedish painter who gave himself so much to nude painting since Zorn”, said the art writer Kåge Liefwendal in 1947. This huge oil picture (200 x 180 cm) painted on wood panel, representing three nude women in a bright Swedish summer landscape near the sea is truly remarkable. The strong colours seem to us close to those of the Swedish painting movement “Färg och Form” (starting in 1932 with Albin Amelin and Gideon Börje among others). The women are lightly sketched, the wood panel is appearing and made part of the picture. And there is a delightful rhythm and a movement in the overall composition.