iThiel Gallery (Thielska galleriet) · Djurgården
A selection of works by Danish modernist J.F. Willumsen (1863–1958), acquired and championed by Ernest Thiel, shown in the Söderberg Room.
Upstairs in Ernest Thiel's house is the guest room where the writer Hjalmar Söderberg used to stay, and his desk is still in it. For this display the room holds Thiel's letters with the Danish painter J.F. Willumsen, whose 1907 Stockholm solo show Thiel backed and from whom he bought seven works.
You get every Willumsen the museum owns here except the big Sun over Southern Mountains, which hangs in the Munch Room: sunbeams fall through brown cloud onto a village at the water's edge. Photos of the museum's 1969 Willumsen show, its largest until then, sit with the letters. When the winter sun sets before four, that canvas is the most daylight your afternoon gets.
The museum says Willumsen is more or less forgotten in Sweden, and this is a small display, so pair it with the Lars von Trier show made with the Willumsen Museum. Both are in the 160 SEK ticket, free under 19. There's no lift, and Thursdays run to 20:00 until October ends.
Sun over Southern Mountains, in the Munch Room
Shafts of sunlight cut through a bank of brown cloud and turn a small waterside village yellow, with snowy peaks above; it is the one Willumsen kept out of the Söderberg Room.
The Willumsen and Thiel letters
The painter's correspondence with the banker who bought seven of his works, shown in the Söderberg Room and also readable on the museum's website.
Photographs of the 1969 show
Pictures of the Thiel Gallery's 1969 Willumsen exhibition, at the time the biggest show the museum had ever staged.
You want a full Willumsen retrospective: this is one room of the museum's own works plus letters.
Under-19s get in free. The museum has no lift and the main entrance has steps, so plan ahead with a pushchair.