{{Short description|Swedish painter (1842–1934)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox artist | name = Nils Forsberg | image = Nils Forsberg - from Svenskt Porträttgalleri XX.png | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Nils Forsberg | birth_date = 17 December 1842<ref name=Wieselgren1944/> | birth_place = Riseberga | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1934|11|8|1842|12|17}}<ref name=Wieselgren1944/> | death_place = Helsingborg | field = Painter | training = | movement = | works = | patrons = | influenced by = | influenced = | awards = }} '''Nils Forsberg''' (17 December 1842 &ndash; 8 November 1934) was a Swedish painter who lived and worked in Paris for much of his career.<ref name="Gunnarsson"/>

==Life== Forsberg was born to a destitute family in a small village called Riseberga, in the province of Scania.<ref name=nie>"Forsberg, Nils". In {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppVGAQAAIAAJ&q=Nils+Forsberg+1842+risberga&pg=PA58|title=The New International Encyclopædia|last1=Gilman|first1=Daniel Coit|last2=Peck|first2=Harry Thurston|last3=Colby|first3=Frank Moore|date=1907|publisher=Dodd, Mead, and Company|language=en|volume=8|page=58}} {{PD-notice}} </ref><ref name="Wieselgren1944">{{cite book|author=Oscar Harald Wieselgren|title=Svenska män och kvinnor: biografisk uppslagsbok|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nXRmAAAAMAAJ|year=1944|publisher=Bonnier|page=555}}</ref> The son of a peasant, he spent his early years in farming, then was apprenticed to a house-painter in Gothenburg.<ref name="nie" /> He made a statue of Minerva which procured for him a government stipend which enabled him to go to Paris in 1867.<ref name="nie" /> In Paris he was a student in the atelier of Léon Bonnat.<ref name="Brauer2014">{{cite book|author=Fae Brauer|title=Rivals and Conspirators: The Paris Salons and the Modern Art Centre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jWBJDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA92|date=8 July 2014|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-6370-4|pages=92}}</ref><ref name="nie" /><ref name=ben>"[http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00066258 Nils Forsberg]". Benezit Dictionary of Artists (2006). {{ISBN|9780199773787}}.</ref> Art historian Richard Muther would later write that Forsberg "became the Swedish Bonnat".<ref name=Muther1896/> The siege of Paris, during which he enlisted in the Ambulance Department, afforded him opportunities for studying and sketching the scenes that he observed.<ref name="nie" /> In 1877 he exhibited ''Family of Acrobats before the Circus Director'', now in the Gothenburg Museum of Art.<ref name="nie" /> This work, which typifies Forsberg's commitment to social reform, shows the influence of the French Realists in its depiction of child labor.<ref name="Gunnarsson"/>

thumb|right|Nils Forsberg ''Death of a Hero'' (1888) thumb|Oil sketch for "Death of a Hero" In 1888 he received the gold medal at the Salon for his painting ''The Death of a Hero'',<ref name=ben/><ref name="Muther1896">{{cite book|author=Richard Muther|title=The History of Modern Painting|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YdgVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA355|year=1896|publisher=Henry and Company|pages=355}}</ref><ref>"Fine Arts in 1888". In {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WgwbAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA332|title=Appletons' Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events|date=1889|publisher=D. Appleton & Co.|pages=332|language=en}}</ref> now in the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm.<ref name=nm/> The culmination of his ambition to renew traditional history painting with a vigorous contemporary realism, it took him several years to complete, and was inspired by his experiences during the Franco-Prussian War.<ref name="Gunnarsson"/> Afterwards he devoted himself more especially to historical subjects.<ref name="nie" /> In 1904 he returned to Sweden, where he lived in Helsingborg.<ref name="Gunnarsson">Gunnarsson, T. (2003). "Forsberg, Nils, the elder". Grove Art Online.</ref> He died in Helsingborg on 8 November 1934.<ref name="Wieselgren1944"/><ref name="Gunnarsson"/>

He had a son, Nils Forsberg the younger (b 1870), who was also a painter.<ref name="Gunnarsson"/>

==Permanent collections== In total, 25 of Forsberg's works are held by the Nationalmuseum.<ref name=nm>{{cite web|url=http://collection.nationalmuseum.se/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=artist&objectId=7478&viewType=detailView|title=Nils Forsberg|publisher=Nationalmuseum}}</ref> Several of his works, including the 1900 painting ''Gustaf II Adolf before Battle of Lützen'',<ref name="Jonson2016">{{cite book|author=Jonas Jonson|title=Nathan Soderblom: Called to Serve|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VFkDDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA76|year=2016|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-7308-8|pages=76}}</ref> are held by the Gothenburg Museum of Art.<ref name=goth>{{cite web|url=http://emp-web-34.zetcom.ch/eMuseumPlus;jsessionid=E4809DAC7B9C0A6AA976362CAB5ECB91.node1?service=direct/1/ResultDetailView/result.t1.collection_detail.$TspReferenceLink.link&sp=10&sp=Scollection&sp=SelementList&sp=0&sp=0&sp=999&sp=SdetailView&sp=0&sp=Sdetail&sp=1&sp=F&sp=Sartist&sp=l259|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603080426/http://emp-web-34.zetcom.ch/eMuseumPlus;jsessionid=E4809DAC7B9C0A6AA976362CAB5ECB91.node1?service=direct%2F1%2FResultDetailView%2Fresult.t1.collection_detail.%24TspReferenceLink.link&sp=10&sp=Scollection&sp=SelementList&sp=0&sp=0&sp=999&sp=SdetailView&sp=0&sp=Sdetail&sp=1&sp=F&sp=Sartist&sp=l259|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 June 2018|title=Nils Forsberg|publisher=Gothenburg Museum of Art|access-date=6 December 2020}}</ref>

==Gallery== <gallery class="center" widths="150px" perrow="5" align="center"> File:A Communard (Nils Forsberg) - Nationalmuseum - 20117.tif|''A Communard'' (1871) Nationalmuseum File:Acrobat Family before the Circus Manager (Nils Forsberg) - Gothenburg Museum of Art - GKM 0178.tif|''Family of Acrobats before the Circus Director'' (1877) File:Nils Forsberg, Gustav II Adolf.jpg|''Gustav II Adolf before the Battle of Lutzen'' of 1632, in which the king died. Gothenburg Museum of Art, 1900 File:Stenbocks kurir.jpg|''Stenbock's Courier'' (1911) File:Selfportrait (Nils Forsberg) - Nationalmuseum - 19767.tif|Self-portrait (1882) </gallery>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * [https://runeberg.org/vemvardet/0066.html "Forsberg, Nils"]. Vem är det (1944). {{in lang|sv}} * [https://runeberg.org/nfbh/0488.html "Forsberg, 2. Nils"]. Nordisk familjebok (1908). {{in lang|sv}} * [https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=14340 "Nils Forsberg"]. Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (1964–1966). {{in lang|sv}}

{{Commons category|Nils Forsberg}} {{Authority control (arts)|country=SV}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forsberg, Nils}} Category:1842 births Category:1934 deaths Category:19th-century Swedish painters Category:20th-century Swedish painters Category:Swedish male painters Category:19th-century Swedish male artists Category:20th-century Swedish male artists Category:People from Klippan Municipality Category:Artists from Skåne County