Osterlind, Allan

1855 – 1938
Swedish

Allan Osterlind was born in Sweden to a noble family. He studied art at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts but soon left for Paris to join its bustling art scene. Although active in the ex-pat community, he immersed himself in the French culture, married a French woman, and lived in France for the rest of his life. He founded an association of watercolorists and began to create aquatints with portraits as his main subject matter.

Sadly, with the onset of World War I and the death of his wife, he fell into a deep depression. His work suffered and he virtually gave up aquatints to create portrait paintings on glasses and plates at a local cabaret. He died in poverty in 1938.