'Kolingen'.
Albert Engström was one of the leading early 20th-century Swedish comics artists, best-known for the tramp character 'Kolingen' (1897). Kolingen is widely regarded as the oldest Swedish comic series built around a recurring protagonist. Together with Oskar Andersson, Engström is therefore regarded as one of the pioneers of the modern Swedish comic strip. He published his cartoons in magazines like Söndags-Nisse and his own magazine, Strix. 'Kolingen' became a phenomenon in Swedish culture. Its satire of upperclass society made it very beloved among general audiences and various characters and other elements from the series have entered the Swedish everyday language. The comic was also adapted in several comedy films. Engström additionally drew cartoons and illustrations for the Sunday paper Söndags-Nisse and his own humor magazine, Strix. He is notable for illustrating the Swedish children's alphabet book 'Pyttan's A-B och C-D Lära' (1896). Engström was also a respected novelist, painter and art professor.
Early life and career
Albert Laurentius Johannes Engström was born in 1869 in Lönneberga, Kalmar County. He was a nephew of Samuel August Ericsson, father of famous children's novelist Astrid Lindgren (of 'Pippi Longstockings' fame). Engström spent a large part of his childhood in Hult, a small station community near Eksjö, where his father worked as a stationmaster. By 1888, he wrote his first poems and prose in the local papers Eksjötidningen and Smålands Allehanda. In the following year, he went to study Latin and Greek at Uppsala University, where he became close friends with Bruno Liljefors. He broke off his studies after four terms and returned home. In 1892-1893, he was one of painter Carl Larsson's pupils at Valand School of Fine Arts in Gothenburg. He additionally took lessons in etching from Axel Tallberg, and quickly developed into an extraordinarily skillful and productive artist.
Pyttan's A-B och C-D Lära
In 1896, Engström illustrated 'Pyttan's A-B och C-D-Lära' (1896), a "learn-your-alphabet" book written by Ik Acke, Verner von Heidenstam, Gustaf Fröding and Birger Mörner. Each letter is introduced with a rhyming narrative and an illustration of something that starts with that particular letter. Generations of Swedish toddlers have grown up with this ABC book, which has been frequently reprinted. However, some imagery hasn't aged well in more politically correct times. When the book was exhibited in the Eksjö Museum in 2019 as part of an expo about Engström's life and career, some images were placed in a different hall of the museum after complaints, for instance a depiction of a black African tribesman to visualize the letter 'N'.
Cover illustrations for Strix.
Strix
Engström returned to Gothenburg in August 1893, and his old home in the Örgrytevägen. One of his first paid assignments were a couple of large mural paintings in the city's Ölhallen Weise beer hall. He gained fame with his work as a cartoonist for humour magazines. Engström was on the editorial staff of the comedy magazine Söndags-Nisse between 1894 and 1896, and then launched his own magazine Strix on 11 March 1897. Most early Swedish cartoonists published their work in these types of magazines, which contained prose, cartoons and comics. They were mostly read in shaving parlours. Their heydays effectively ended in the 1920s, when the safety razor was released on the market.
Strix quickly became one of the country's leading humor magazines, and was edited by Engström until 1924. Besides his own work, Strix also contained contributions by Carl Larsson, Bruno Liljefors and Oskar Andersson, who had replaced Engström as the regular cartoonist in Söndags-Nisse. Strix merged with Söndags-Nisse in 1924. The joint venture continued to appear under the title Söndags Nisse-Strix until 1955, and was revived from 1998 to 2006 as Nya Söndagsnisse-Strix, which served as a supplement to Grönköpings Veckoblad. Of all the magazine's contributors, Albert Engström stood out for his social commentary. His satirical cartoons and caricatures ridiculed people in power, including priests, politicians, policemen and officers.
Kolingen
Albert Engström's best-known character was 'Kolingen' who debuted in the magazine Strix on 20 May 1897. Kolingen is a tall alcoholic tramp with a brush mustache. He was inspired by a real-life harbor worker who was also named Kolingen and often hung around in Norrköping when the comic artist was a child. Although the harbor worker wasn't poor, he was often visibly and audibly intoxicated. Kolingen often hangs around with a potbellied, unshaven sidekick, Bobban. Their shenanigans are set in the fictional town Grönköping. Kolingen and Bobban's heavy drinking habits and overall shabbyness are a running gag, yet the comic also offered stingy satire of the upper class. In many gags, the duo intermingles with high society, lampooning them through observatory, derogatory remarks. The 'Kolingen' gags are usually presented in the style of one-panel cartoons with a witty dialogue beneath. However, since Engström used his anti-heroes as recurring characters he is historically significant as the first Swedish artist to make what we would nowadays recognize as a comic series.
The turn of the 19th into the 20th century was a popular time for comics about vagrants, hobos and tramps. In the United Kingdom, Tom Browne drew 'Weary Willie and Tired Tim' (1896-1953), which would later inspire Charlie Chaplin to his own tramp alter ego. In the U.S., Frederick Burr Opper drew 'Happy Hooligan' (1900-1932).
Through its straightforward jokes and witty satire, 'Kolingen' quickly became very popular among readers. The word 'Kolingen' entered the dictionary as a byword for "drunk tramps", while the word 'Grönköping' also entered the Swedish language as a synonym for "fictional town" or a "humorous, ironic depiction of Swedish society". The phrase gave its name to Grönköpings Veckoblad ("Grönköping's Weekly"), one of the longest running satirical magazines in the country (since 1902).
'Kolingen' was also adapted in a few silent black-and-white slapstick comedy films. The first one, 'Kolingen' (1908), directed by Erik Dahlberg, was a short movie which is nowadays lost. 'Kolingens Galoscher' (1912), directed by Eric Malmberg, is a parody of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale 'The Galoshes of Fortune'. 'Gamla Gatans Karneval' (1923), directed by Bror Abelli, is nowadays lost too.
Drawing for an advertising poster for Carnegie Porter beer (around 1910).
Novels and paintings
Albert Engström made his debut as a writer with 'En Bok' ("A Book") in 1905. He wrote many other books in the years that followed, some of which were also translated to English. The artist spent a lot of time on Gotska Sandön, penning one of the most comprehensive works about this uninhabited Swedish island. He additionally made many watercolor paintings of the Roslagen coastal area from his atelier on a cliff in Grisslehamn.
Teaching career
Engström was elected to the Academy of Fine Arts in 1919 and became a member of the Swedish Academy in 1922. Between 1925 and 1935, he was a drawing professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Engström and his friend Bruno Liljefors received an honorary doctorate in Philosophy from Uppsala University in 1927. He was additionally a member of the Svea Orden, one of Sweden's oldest secret societies, from 1917.
Recognition
In 1919, Engström was infucted in the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. In 1927, he and Bruno Liljefors were named honorary doctors in Philopsophy by the University of Upssala. In 1980, an asteroid was named after Engström.
Final years, death and legacy
In 1938, Engström's vision declined, forcing him to quit his graphic career. He passed away in late 1940 in a Stockholm hospital, at age 71. His daughter, Malin Engström (1897-1967), would later gain fame as a novelist and painter, while his son, Lars-Bruno Engström (1910-1972) became a notable journalist.
In 1969, the Swedish postal service celebrated what would've been Engström's 100th birthday by releasing a special stamp. The Albert Engström Society was founded in 1981 to preserve his artistic legacy. In Sweden, it's one of the largest literary societies, with over 1700 members. It maintains museums dedicated to Albert Engström's work in both Eksjö and Grisslehamn, and also awards the annual Albert Engström Prize to people who have either spread the artist's legacy, or have produced work in his spirit.
Albert Engström was an influence on artist and musician Evert Taube (who was also once engaged with Engström's daughter, Malin).
Self-portrait on a 1917 issue of Strix.