Artwork
tavla, painting
tavla, painting is a paint painting by Ossian Josef David Elgström. It is held in the collection of the ethnographic museum. The work titled tavla presents a solitary figure in a dark suit and spectacles, positioned before an elaborate, antiquated map.
About this work
Overview
The map’s orientation is unconventional, placing Africa at the top and the Americas below, populated with ships, stylized fauna, and human figures.
The work titled tavla presents a solitary figure in a dark suit and spectacles, positioned before an elaborate, antiquated map. The map’s orientation is unconventional, placing Africa at the top and the Americas below, populated with ships, stylized fauna, and human figures. The composition juxtaposes the modern, flat rendering of the sitter with the richly detailed, historic‑looking cartographic background.
Subject & Meaning
The central figure, rendered with minimal facial detail, may symbolize a contemporary observer or scholar confronting the legacy of exploration. The map’s distorted geography and whimsical illustrations suggest a critique of colonial narratives, inviting viewers to reconsider how knowledge of the world has been constructed and represented across time.
Technique & Style
The portrait employs a flat, almost graphic approach to the man's visage, contrasting with the textured, hand‑drawn quality of the map. This dichotomy highlights a tension between modern minimalism and the ornate, line‑heavy aesthetics of early cartography, creating a layered visual dialogue between past and present artistic conventions.
Context
While specific provenance details are absent, the painting’s engagement with cartographic motifs aligns it with a broader tradition of artists using maps to comment on cultural and historical perspectives. Its unusual geographic orientation and inclusion of fantastical elements echo the imaginative maps of the Renaissance, reinterpreted through a contemporary visual language.
Artist & collection
Artist
Swedish painter Ossian Elgström spent years sketching Sápmi’s reindeer herders with blunt charcoal before switching to oil, then painting their faces so real they seem to breathe.
