Richard Bergh was born in Stockholm in 1858 as the son of an artist and professor. He and his second wife Gerda moved to Varberg in the autumn of 1893, their three young children in tow. Bergh was looking for peace and quiet, wanting to finish several larger paintings he had commenced work on. In the small landscape painting ‘Strandäng Halland’ (‘Coastal Meadow Halland’), he captures the play of light along the coastline, adding only a handful of details. In Varberg, Bergh mainly focused on the grand ‘Riddaren och jungfrun’ (‘The Knight and The Virgin’), which features multiple symbols for life and death. Bergh was known for being a skilled portraitist: in this work, he drew on his talent for both portrait- and landscape-painting. His wife Gerda, his friend Karl Nordström and the local population all posed for the painting. In 1915, Bergh, who wrote many articles and books in his life and was a sought-after exhibition curator, became Director of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm.

©Hallands kulturhistoriska museum