Perseus befriar Andromeda
Huile sur plâtre 7,30 X 5,57 m
Fresques murales (plafond)
Hallwyl museum, Stockholm

     Born in Karlkrona, Kronberg was educated at the Konstakademi in Stockholm, where his teachers were J.C. Boklund, August Malmström and Johan Frederck Höckert. Upon Receiving a scholarship in 1873, the artist travelled to the continent, first studying in Düsseldorf and later in Munich. During his time in Germany he fell under the spell of the Old Master's, specially the robust work of Peter Paul Rubens and the theatrical style of Hans Makart. In 1877, he left Munich and settled in Rome, where, between trips to the Far East, he stayed until 1889, when he returned to Stockholm to be appointed as a professor at the Konstakademi.

     The Present work, painted during the artist's extended stay in Rome, aptly demonstrates Kronberg's admiration and understanding of Rubens' mythological pictures and the dramatic sense of movement portrayed in the arts during the Baroque period. Here, Kronberg has transformed paint into flesh, fruits and fur. A watercolor study for his work, dated 1880, is in the collection of the Gothenburg Art Museum in Sweden, and a sketch is preserved at the artist's studio at Skansen, Sweden. Another enourmous romantic painting by Kronberg titled "Romeo & Juliet" is at the Beckershof Museum in Sweden. A large painting by Kronberg "Jaktnymf och Fauner" hangs at the Nationalmuseum, SKM in Stockhom..