Demolishing the Old Orphanage, Stockholm

In his poem ‘The Esplanade System’, from 1883, August Strindberg describes how a modern Stockholm was emerging at that time, with old houses being torn down ‘for light and air’. Schultzberg’s painting s a commentary on the same process. With razor-sharp realism he records the demolition of the old orphanage, meticulously capturing he early spring light, the many nuances of the gravel and rocks, an…