Biography of Knut Alfred Ekwall (1843-1912)

Knut Alfred Ekwall (known primarily as "Knut Ekwall") was a well-known Swedish painter, born on April 3, 1843 in Säby (Småland province), Sweden. Ekwall began his artistic studies as a teenager, studying from 1860 to 1866 at the Academy of the Arts in Stockholm where the emphasis of his work was xylography* (designing woodcut printing blocks) and drawing. Following his studies at the Academy, he became a pupil of the accomplished German painter Ludwig Knaus (1829-1910), a highly successful genre painter associated with the younger Düsseldorf school*. The work of this school is characterized by allegorical* scenes and romantic landscapes with fine detail and a subdued...