Vase - With iris motifs

Alf Wallander (1862–1914), a major Swedish Art Nouveau designer, studied painting in Stockholm and Paris. He worked for the Rorstrand porcelain factory in Lidkoping first as a designer and ultimately as artistic director. He presented his first works at an exhibition in Stockholm in 1896, and later also exhibited at Fritz Gurlitt’s art salon in Berlin. His Art Nouveau porcelain ware was displayed with great success at the Paris World’s Fair of 1900. Wallander transformed mass-produced ware into individual handcrafted porcelain. He made subtly-formed organic, chiefly flower sculptures on cast vase bodies. The mouth of the vase is surrounded by the favourite flowers of Art Nouveau – splendid irises, poppies and dandelions – relieving the constraints of the fixed shape. He used underglaze paints to colour the vases, and pastel colours, which gave the surface a slightly dissolved effect and further lightened his imaginatively composed works. Alf Wallander designed for the Rorstrand porcelain works in Lidkoping for nearly twenty years, and the company experienced its heyday under his artistic direction. The Director of the Museum of Applied Arts at that time, Jenő Radisics (1856–1917), who had extraordinary knowledge and appreciation of modern art, purchased Wallander’s works directly from the factory.