Artist Spotlight: Eugene Jansson

The sense of freedom Swedish artist Eugene Jansson must have felt when he turned from blue landscapes to nude male gymnasts and sailors pulsates in his artwork.

BY Christopher Harrity

March 09 2013 6:00 AM ET

Above: A gallery showing of Jansson's work indicated the scale of the paintings.

Jansson produced several monumental paintings depicting the same bath-house, and continued painting naked athletes until an attack of cerebral haemorrhage ended his life. As homosexuality was illegal in Sweden until 1944 his brother, Adrian Jansson, a homosexual, survived Eugène by many years, destroyed all his letters and many other papers, possibly to avoid scandal.