The self-taught woodcarver Axel Petersson, commonly called Döderhultarn after his place of birth, became known to a wider audience in 1909 when he showed some work as part of the magazine Söndags-Nisse’s exhibition of caricatures in Stockholm. He carved his wooden figures in an idiom that was broadly Expressionist, distinguished by his amazing ability to imbue his carvings with character. Döderhultarn, who initially sold his little figures for 25 öre apiece, was discovered by the art world and soon realized that he could charge more for his figures as artworks. His piece The Auction depicts a farm auction in southern Sweden, where the artist’s sure eye has caught the boniness of the prematurely ageing and submissive rural poor. The then museum director Axel L. Romdahl was one of the first to recognize Döderhultarn as an artist and began to buy his works for the Museum as early as 1909.
Per Dahlström from The Collection Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg 2014
