Carl von Felitzen’s bust

Artist: Carl Eldh
Year of creation: 1939
Placement: Vedtorget, Jönköping
Technique and material: Sculpture

About the artwork

Carl von Feilitzen (1840–1901) was a pioneer in agricultural chemistry and conducted research on how peat could be cultivated effectively. He founded both Svenska Mosskulturföreningen (the Swedish Peat Cultivation Society) and Sweden’s first chemical station for the analysis of agricultural products. A few years after his death, his friends commissioned a portrait bust of the sculptor Carl Eldh (1873–1954). The sculpture was cast in 1909 and placed at the Swedish Peat Cultivation Society’s building, ‘Vegetationsgården’, at Vedtorget in Jönköping. In 1939, when the Swedish Peat Cultivation Society moved to Ultuna, the bust was donated to the city of Jönköping and placed by a plantation out on Vedtorget. Today, the site is a plantation in the middle of a cul-de-sac adjacent to residential buildings.

About the artist

Carl Eldh (1873–1954) worked as a sculptor in Stockholm from 1904 to 1954. He was educated in Stockholm and, like many contemporary artists, in Paris. During his lifetime, Eldh received many commissions, including as a portraitist and monument creator. His works can be found in urban environments, parks, on facades and in private and public collections.

As an artist, Eldh is perhaps best known for his many representations of Strindberg, but he also portrayed many historical and contemporary figures. He was very successful, but portraiture was not his only strength, what was inside a person was at least as important for the expression. Eldh wanted to express what the person was really like.