Well, the rather long absence from the blog has been occasioned by, among other things, a happy holiday on the North Yorkshire Moors. So, shall we just pretend like I've not been away and get back to it? The silver plated clip above was a very happy find the other day in an antiques market. The rather lithe figure sang out to me with his lyre and I was glad to see a name on the piece too which always adds a little interest. Sure enough, the name Stig Blomberg (1901-1970) took me on a little trip around the internet collecting images of his rather fine works. A Swedish sculptor, he holds the strange distinction of winning a bronze medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games for, well, sculpture. (It is only in recent years the Olympic Games have lost their art and literature competitions.) His career appears to have been quiet and uneventful but productive, he taught for many years at the same institute in which he was originally a pupil. His subject is often youth and often in pairs showing an interaction between figures which has a narrative underpinning. Also, he sculpted mythological subjects. His style was varied over his career and it seems he moved from a pared down naturalism into the somewhat more stylized forms of the 50s and 60s.
The Swedish wiki page about him tells me that he also illustrated books under the name T Arvidsson, but I have yet to uncover any of those.
As for my little clip above... I cannot find other examples of miniature work like this, nor can I find the same image in larger form. I have to imagine that a nude classical-ish figure with a lyre is going to be either Apollo or Orpheus. We know that Apollo has featured in his work elsewhere and perhaps those are laurels in the background to clinch it.
