February 20 - May 30 2010 Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde will be showing the works of Per Hasselberg in a retrospective exhibition. He was one of the leading sculptors towards the end of the 19th century, and is well represented in Prince Eugen's Collection. Per Hasselberg (1850-1894) was born in a peasant's family on New Year's Day, near Ronneby in southern Sweden. The road to becoming a celebrated sculptor and vice chairman of Konstnärsförbundet (the Swedish Artists' Association), went via being a carpenter's apprentice and an ornamental sculptor. In 1876, he was awarded a scholarship from the Swedish Board of Commerce and travelled to Paris. The following year he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts, then the leading educational institution for a sculptor. At the Salon of 1881, Hasselberg's sculpture La Perce-Neige, the Snowdrop, was awarded a mention honorable. This meant his definitive artistic break-through and unlocked the doors to the Swedish art-scene. Nationalmuseum ordered La Perce-Neige in marble at a cost of SEK 6 000 - it was finished in 1883. At the Salon the same year, he was awarded a third medal for it. La Perce-Neige is to be found in official places in several Swedish cities, for instance in Ronneby, Karlshamn and in Stockholm, on Mariatorget square. It was also widely distributed as a figurine through porcelain-maker Gustavsberg, which occasioned Hasselberg to raise the question of copyright issues. The well-known Gothenburg personality Pontus Fürstenberg became Hasselberg's patron and friend. He commissioned Hasselberg to help fashion his gallery, the Fürstenberg Gallery. In close co-operation with several artists, among them the sculptor Christian Eriksson, Hasselberg executed six sculptural reliefs, which symbolize electricity, magnetism, steam, dynamite, photography and the telephone - today they are in Göteborgs Konstmuseum (art museum). Eriksson also executed the hewing of several of Hasselberg's sculptures after Hasselberg passed away in 1894, amongst them the well-known Näckrosen (the Water Lily). Prince Eugen and Per Hasselberg became friends in 1888, when the Prince had his bust sculpted by Hasselberg. Later he was to be the Prince's guest in the summers of 1893 at Sundbyholm by Lake Mälaren, and in 1894 at Tyresö, south of Stockholm. Although they came from widely differing circumstances and had different educational backgrounds, the Prince came to appreciate Hasselberg's very personal ideas and bold attitude regarding a number of art policy questions, for example his view on the social function of art. Within the Opponent Movement and the Artists' Association, Hasselberg pursued the question of accommodating industrial art and craft objects in the Artists' House that was being planned at the time. Concurrently with the exhibition, paintings by Per Hasselberg's contemporaries and friends will be shown - works from Prince Eugen's Collection as well as from Nationalmuseum and Göteborgs konstmuseum. Amongst the artists shown are Richard Bergh, Eva Bonnier, Georg Pauli, Hanna Hirsch Pauli, Carl Larsson and Anders Zorn. In connection with the exhibition, a Swedish-language catalogue entitled Per Hasselberg will be published.