Illustrated Sheet Music Covers by Einar Nerman

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Sweden, circa 1912–1932. From the Images Musicales collection (also see their new blog).

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

En gyllene medelväg (A Happy Middle Way), 1919

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Folie Tollie, not dated

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Tidens vaggsång, not dated

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Min lilla Wa-tah-wall, 1915

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Pastoral och parodi, 1932



Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Karavan, not dated

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Min morgonsång (My Morningsong), 1914

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Suzy, 1917

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Kullornas Vals, 1927

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Chong, 1919

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Det finns en tagg på varje rosenstängel, not dated

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

La même lune nous voit, 1917

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Säg varför går du här och ger mig ögon? (Why do you go and give me this, when you really don't mean anything to me?), 1916

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Carmencita, 1925

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Det är vårens fel (It Is Spring's Mistake), 1912

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

En sjömansvals (A Sailor's Waltz), 1918

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

En sjömansdrill (A Seaman's Drill), 1920

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Varför? - Därför! (Why? Because!), 1925

Einar Nerman, from the Images Musicales collection

Allihop är de galna i mej! (They go Wild simply Wild over me), 1925

This is my fifth post on Swedish illustrator Einar Nerman. See them all here.

From wikipedia Einar Nerman (6 October 1888, Norrköping – 1983) was a Swedish artist. He was born and grew up in middle class family in the working-class city of Norrköping and was the younger brother of the Swedish Communist leader Ture Nerman. Einar Nerman also had a twin brother, Birger Nerman, who was an archeologist.



Einar Nerman dropped out of his Norrköping Gymnasium High School in 1905 and moved to Stockholm to study art. In 1908 he moved to France for many years to pursue his interest in art, studying with Matisse at the Academie Matisse in Paris.



When he came back to Sweden in 1912 he started studying music and taking dance lessons. In the 1920s Nerman lived in London and drew images for The Tatler. During World War II, he lived and worked in New York.



Einar Nerman wrote songs and music and composed music and to many of his brother Ture Nerman’s poems.



Einar Nerman also made illustrations for many of the books by Selma Lagerlöf. In Sweden today, he is mostly known, or unknown, for being the man behind the art of the Solstickan matchbox. He also made some famous drawings of Greta Garbo, one of which was used on a postage stamp in 2005, a hundred years after the moviestar's birth.



A book of his drawings appeared in 1976: Caught in the Act (Harrap, London) with an introduction by his friend, lyricist Sandy Wilson. It contained many caricatures of friends in the London theatre world. From 1922 to 1930 he was the theatre cartoonist for The Tatler and also worked for the fashionable magazine Eve.



This post first appeared on August 7, 2014 on 50 Watts

Dear internet editors: When you reblog more than 50% of a post you raise my blood pressure and hence shorten my lifespan.