The Quietude of Hälsingland
Born in 1879 in Njutångers församling, Gävleborgs län, Per Johan Sten—known to many as John—was shaped by the rugged realities of a Swedish childhood. His family, facing the hardships of rural life, moved to a small cottage at Kvavtjärn near Njutånger. It was a life of labor, where his father worked as a stonecutter. A childhood accident, the loss of a finger on his left hand at age four, likely steered him away from the heavy physical toil of his father's trade and toward the delicate precision of the brush.
His formal training began in the evenings at the Tekn skolans i Sthlm aftonskola and continued at Konstnärsförb:s skola between 1905 and 1908. These formative years provided the technical foundation for a style that would eventually move beyond the strictures of his early training. By the time he settled in Hudiksvall, his artistic identity was beginning to take a distinct shape, moving away from the rigid structures of his youth toward a more expressive way of seeing the world.
A Shift in Vision
The years spent in Paris from 1910 to 1918 marked a significant evolution in his technique. During this period, Sten moved away from the heavy, structured approach of cubism. He began to favor a decorative line treatment, a style aligned with Fauvism, where color and form were used to convey a sense of atmosphere rather than mere anatomical or architectural accuracy. His work from this era, such as the 1915 watercolour Still Life with White Jug, demonstrates a controlled yet fluid hand.
His palette and method shifted as his geography changed. He became particularly adept in gouache and watercolour, mediums that allowed for a certain immediacy and lightness. This technical preference would define his later, most significant period of production, as he sought to capture the essence of light and landscape through more fluid, less rigid applications of pigment.
The Final Horizon
In 1922, a scholarship allowed Sten to travel beyond Europe, a journey that would lead him to the tropics. He traveled with his wife, Anna Valborg Jensen, to Java and Bali. It was in these exotic landscapes that his style reached a point of maturity, characterized by the Samsö-Balisviten, a series of gouaches depicting groups of women within the lush scenery. These works captured a specific, fleeting light that differed greatly from the cool tones of his Swedish origins.
The journey ended abruptly in Karang, Asem, Bali. After contracting dysentery, he died on December 21, 1922. Before his death, he had made arrangements for his body of work to be preserved, ensuring that his artistic output would find a home in the Hälsinglands museum. His legacy remains tied to the landscapes he observed, from the quiet countryside of his birth to the distant, sun-drenched shores of Indonesia.
