The Steam Train

A charming mid-century modernist landscape composition in oil, painted onto board by Swedish artist Eric Elfvén (1921–2008), whose works have been exhibited in public collections including the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Jönköping Museum, Borås Art Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

This landscape painting captures a stylised countryside scene with a steam train cutting across the middle ground, its billowing white smoke rising into a pale blue sky. The artist has simplified the forms into bold, geometric blocks of colour: deep greens and browns for the fields, sandy beige for the pathways, and darker earthy tones for the hills. A sliver of blue at the horizon suggests the sea, adding depth and contrast to the composition.

Painted in a distinctly modernist style, the work reduces natural detail in favour of strong shapes and tonal contrasts. The brushstrokes are broad and confident, applied with a matte, almost flat quality, lending the piece a sense of clarity. The balance between abstraction and representation gives the scene both immediacy and timeless simplicity, characteristic of mid-century aesthetics.

This oil on board is presented in a complementary gilt frame. The painting has some light surface marks but this does not detract and it is in good vintage condition overall, and the frame has scuffs present. 

Size: 33.5 x 50.5 cm (including frame)