Roland Svensson, was a Swedish painter, writer, black and white artist, illustrator of books and originals for stamps. He is most noted for his depiction of the Stockholm archipelago. He also wrote several books.
Biography
Svensson sought out his motifs among the islets and skerries around the summer cottage and studio at Stora Tornö, across the Långvik strait on Möja in the Stockholm archipelago. He also wrote books describing the seasonal changes in the arcepelago with deep and vivid animation. His style was forceful and impressionistic but not without a strong feeling for decorative elements. He preferred to draw with coal. His views on Swedish nature and Swedish characteristics is close to that of Karl Nordström and Albert Engström. He became much noted through his color lithography's. In two books by Sven Barthel, Svensson contributed with black and white illustrations as well as water colors and pastel drawings. These books are deemed very Swedish with their harsh simplicity and the true love for nature expressed in them. The books are considered very beautiful and have been called classics in both the literary and artistic sense. In 1957 and 1958 Svensson participated, as an artist, in arctic expeditions to Spitsbergen and North Cape, Norway aboard the ship. Roland Svensson was married to Ingrid and they had two children, Lif and Torbjörn. In 1957, Svensson and his family moved to Villa Wallbeck–Hansen at Storängen, Nacka in Sweden, and it also became Svensson's main studio. This house in the National Romantic style once belonged to artist Anton Genberg. Svensson spent much time on the Isle of Canna in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland where he was a close friend of folklorists John Lorne Campbell and . He did many drawings and paintings on both Canna and South Uist Roland Svensson is buried at Möja church cemetery.
Sven Barthel, Skärgård, Stockholm: Bonniers, 1952.
Iwan Fischerström, Roland Svensson, FIB's art club, 1960.
Sven Barthel, Strandhugg, Max Ström, 2000.
Own works
Ensliga öar, R&S, 1954.
Hav och människor, R&S, 1957, extended edition Vingförlaget, 1950.
Skärgårdsliv i gången tid, Stockholm: Bonniers, 1961.
Min skärgård och din, Bonniers, 1964.
Ur skissböckerna, Piccolo/LT, 1969.
Från havet: dagboksanteckningar från en resa ombord i T/T Sea Serpent, Bonniers, 1972.
Bilder och minnen, Bonniers, 1981.
I Roland Svenssons övärld: ett urval ur hundra dagböcker 1946–1960, Bonnier Alba, 1995.
He also published illustrated books describing the meeting of land and sea around Scotland and distant islands such as Orkney, Shetland, Hebrides and Tristan da Cunha.
