{{short description|Swedish sculptor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Ansgar Almquist | image = Ansgar Almqvist1.jpg | caption = | occupation = Sculptor | birth_name = Kasper Ansgarius Almquist | birth_date = {{birth date|1889|2|4|df=yes}} | birth_place = Tranås Municipality, Sweden | death_date = {{death date and age|1973|6|15|1889|2|4|df=yes}} | death_place = Lidingö, Sweden }}
'''Kasper Ansgarius "Ansgar" Almquist''' (4 February 1889 – 15 June 1973)<ref name=Amanda>{{cite web |url=https://www.lexikonettamanda.se/show.php?aid=14088 |title=Ansgar Almquist |website=Konstnärslexikonett Amanda |access-date=3 August 2022 |language=sv }}</ref> was a Swedish sculptor, primarily of freestanding figural bronzes.
==Early life and education== Born in Säby parish, now part of Tranås Municipality, to sales clerk Gustav Almquist and Augusta Åhman, Almquist was raised in the village of Åsen went to work for a furniture company when he was 14.<ref name=County>{{cite web |title=Ansgar Almqvist |url=https://stockholmslansmuseum.se/ansgar-almqvist/ |website=Stockholm County Museum |access-date=3 August 2022 |language=sv}}</ref> In 1908 he began studying at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm; he continued in 1909 under the painter Carl Wilhelmson at Valand Academy in Gothenburg, and starting in 1910 in Paris, at the Académie Colarossi under Jean Antoine Injalbert and the École des Beaux-Arts.<ref name=Amanda/><ref name=Sig>{{cite web |url=https://www.signaturer.se/Sverige/AnsgarAlmquist.htm |title=Ansgar Almquist |website=Stämplar & Signaturer |language=sv |access-date=3 August 2022 }}</ref> After the First World War, he returned to Europe in the 1920s on study tours in England, France, Germany and Italy.<ref name=Amanda/>
==Career== Almquist established his studio in Stockholm. He received a number of commissions for public art, including for Stockholm City Hall (four sculptures for the courtyard façade), the Gothenburg Museum of Art,<ref name=Amanda/><ref name=Sig/> and the Stockholm Concert Hall (staircase sculptures and the lights and columns in the main hall),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.konserthuset.se/en/about-us/the-building/entrance-and-foyers/ |title=Entrance and Foyers |website=Konserthuset Stockholm |access-date=3 August 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Main Hall |url=https://www.konserthuset.se/en/about-us/the-building/the-main-hall/ |website=Konserthuset Stockholm |access-date=3 August 2022}}</ref> and also executed sculptures in wood for the interior of {{SS|Kungsholm}} of the Holland America Line; ''Venus'' is now held by {{ill|Sjöfartsmuseet Akvariet|sv}} in Gothenburg.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Anderssen |first1=Ollie |title=Sjöfartsmuseet inreder med Venus |url=https://www.gp.se/kultur/kultur/sjöfartsmuseet-inreder-med-venus-1.986163 |access-date=3 August 2022 |newspaper=Goteborgs-Posten |date=10 February 2010}}</ref> He exhibited frequently with the Swedish Association of Artists, and individually in Tranås in 1930 and in Norrköping in 1944.<ref name=Amanda/> From 1931 to 1938 he taught at the Högre konstindustriella skolan in Stockholm and from 1945 at its successor, Konstfack.<ref name=Amanda/><ref name=Sig/>
His life-size bronze ''Gångaren'' (Race Walker) was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics.<ref name=Olympedia>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/921329 |title=Ansgar Almquist |work=Olympedia |access-date=18 August 2020}}</ref>
==Personal life and death== Almquist married Sigrid Maria Löfgren in 1916.<ref name=Sig/> He died in 1973 in {{ill|Lidingö (town)|lt=Lidingö|sv|Lidingö (tätort)}} on the island of the same name.<ref name=Amanda/> [[File:Stadshuset Olof Skötkonung Olaus Petri.jpg|thumb|Statues of Olof Skötkonung (left) and Olaus Petri (right) at Stockholm City Hall]]
==Collections== Eriksbergs museum in Tranås exhibits a collection of his sculptures and some of the contents from his studio,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tranas.se/upplevagora/kultur/museer/eriksbergsmuseum.6601.html |title=Eriksbergs museum |website=Tranås kommune |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210618004036/http://www.tranas.se/upplevagora/kultur/museer/eriksbergsmuseum.6601.html |archive-date=18 June 2021 |language=sv }}</ref> and works by him have also been shown at Moderna Museet<!-- <ref name="MM">{{cite web |title=Ansgar Almquist |url=https://sis.modernamuseet.se/search/%22Ansgar%20Almquist%22 |website=Moderna Museet |access-date=3 August 2022}}</ref> No works come up in search. --> and Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and at the {{ill|Norrköping Art Museum|sv|Norrköpings konstmuseum}} and the Gothenburg Museum of Art.<ref name=Amanda/><ref name=Sig/>
==Selected works== * ''Gångaren'' (Race Walker, 1936), Tidaholm<ref name=Amanda/><ref name=Sig/><ref name=Olympedia/> * ''Carl Linnaeus'' (1938), Lund<ref name=Amanda/><ref name=Sig/> * ''Damen i dammen'' (1959), Skara<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vast/kommunala-statyer-stulna-tjuvarna-annu-pa-fri-fot |title=Kommunala statyer stulna – tjuvarna ännu på fri fot |publisher=SVT |date=4 July 2018 |access-date=3 August 2022 |language=sv }}</ref> <!-- * ''Family group'' (1951)<ref name=Amanda/> * ''Görel'' (1956)<ref name=Amanda/> * ''Meditation'' (1959)<ref name=Amanda/> * ''Idrottspojke'' (Sporting Boy, 1969)<ref name=Amanda/> * ''Eve''<ref name=Amanda/><ref name=Sig/> * ''Seated Eve''<ref name=Amanda/><ref name=Sig/> * ''Källan'' (The Spring)<ref name=Amanda/><ref name=Sig/>--> * ''Mälarstäderna'', Stockholm City Hall<ref name=Amanda/> * ''Fiskarflickan'', Stockholm County Museum<ref name=County/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|Ansgar Almquist}}
{{Authority control (arts)|country=SV}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Almquist, Ansgar}} Category:1889 births Category:1973 deaths Category:20th-century Swedish sculptors Category:20th-century Swedish male artists Category:Swedish male sculptors Category:Art competitors at the 1936 Summer Olympics Category:People from Tranås Municipality