Cedergren, Per Wilhelm (1823-96; Swedish)
On the Ice, Stockholm 1853
Oil on canvas on wood panel, 61.1 x 90.8 cm
Presented by J.P.Cederberg, 1861
National Gallery of Victoria (p.300.6-1)

This canvas and Short Fish, fruit and flowers 1860 {1861} NGV [PA] were early acquisitions for Melbourne, predating the first official purchases of paintings for the new Melbourne Museum of Art, in 1863.

Cedergren, a successful marine painter, is represented in the Stockholm Maritime Museum and other Swedish museums. The NGV’s online catalogue notes that the donor (who later gave various Scandinavian artefacts to the Melbourne collection) purchased this work in Sweden, directly from the artist, in 1858.

Refs.

NGV 1875, p.36; NGV 1894, p.97 (IV.McArthur Gallery, no.70: on loan to Ballarat); NGV 1905, p.163 (IX.Pictures on loan to country Galleries, no.19) 

The NGV catalogue notes the donor’s name and dates as John Peter Cederberg, 1823-98). For the artist, see AKL 17 (1997), p.460; Bénézit 3, p.641; and http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Wilhelm_Cedergren