Nils Dardel would have turned 138 on October 25, 2026, and in five months Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde will open the first major exhibition about him since Moderna Museet’s Dardel summer in 2014. It’s a good opportunity to take a closer look at the man who painted his own deathbed as a farce, and at how his ironic, colorful visual world works as a poster on a Swedish wall. Here, we look at the exhibition, the paintings that explain him, and how to hang works in his spirit.
Quick facts: Nils Dardel was born on October 25, 1888, in Bettna, Södermanland, and died on May 25, 1943, in New York. The exhibition Nils Dardel – Artist and Dandy is on view at Waldemarsudde on Djurgården from March 20 to September 12, 2027, with around 100 works, including sketches for set and costume designs for the Ballets Suédois in Paris. The Dying Dandy (1918) was purchased in 1984 for 3.4 million kronor, a Swedish record at the time.
One hundred works at Waldemarsudde in 2027: What Artist and Dandy promises
According to Waldemarsudde’s own presentation, around 100 works are being brought together, mainly paintings and drawings. These include rarely shown studies and sketches for set and costume designs for the Ballets Suédois in Paris, as well as the decoration for the Story Room at the Stockholm Public Library. The museum also mentions iconic works, unique archival material and historical photographs, and emphasizes that the exhibition draws on its own collections, significant loans and new research.
The focus is as much on the person as on the brush. Waldemarsudde highlights Dardel’s artistic innovation, his network of artists, gallery owners, collectors and cultural figures, his international career, and his deliberate self-staging as a dandy. This is a different approach from 2014, when Moderna Museet presented Nils Dardel and the Modern Era with roughly the same number of works, curated by John Peter Nilsson, with catalogue essays by Erik Näslund, Annika Öhrner and Nilsson himself. The magazine Cora noted at the time that the exhibition raised the question of whether Dardel was really a modernist, without reaching a clear answer.
For anyone considering art for the wall, this is useful. An artist who actively shaped his own image is an artist whose subjects are already composed to be seen, and it shows when you view them in smaller formats. That’s why Dardel belongs to the same Swedish modernist tradition as Sigrid Hjertén: the colors are bold, the outlines clear, and the tone anything but cautious.
The Dying Dandy: a deathbed scene where the man gazes into a darkened mirror
Dardel’s best-known painting is The Dying Dandy from 1918, which is now part of Moderna Museet’s collection. The image parodies the old genre of deathbed portraits. A man lies on his bed surrounded by mourners: three women tend to his body, while behind them a man weeps into a handkerchief, his gaze turned away. But the dying man does not look piously toward heaven, as the genre demands. He looks into a mirror, and the mirror is darkened. What this means is deliberately unclear, and that very ambiguity has kept the painting alive for over a hundred years.
There is an earlier version in which the dandy holds a fan and has his eyes completely closed, so Dardel experimented with the mood before settling on the final version. The style bears clear traces of Matisse, with intense colors and undulating forms, and the image is often read as a symbol of superficial beauty. The painting’s own history is almost as dramatic as its subject. Financier Fredrik Roos bought it in 1984 for 3.4 million kronor, a Swedish record at the time. Four years later, in 1988, he sold it for 13 million to Hans Thulin. After Thulin’s bankruptcy in 1991, it ended up with Thomas Fischer and now belongs to Moderna Museet. A smaller watercolor version sold at Bukowskis in 2007 for 3.25 million kronor.
"A poster of The Dying Dandy gives a wall something rare: an image that is festive and death-conscious at the same time."
That duality was his hallmark. A Cora reviewer described him in 2014 as a death-conscious, seemingly frivolous artist, and knowing that he himself died at 54, after heart problems and years of alcohol and drugs, gives the dandy’s gaze in the mirror a different weight. It is the same kind of tension found in his other, literally death-related titles, such as Burial in Senlis from 1913 and Crime passionnel from 1921.
Senlis, Paris, and Rolf de Maré: the dance that never leaves the paintings
After studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts from 1908 to 1910, Dardel moved to Paris and lived there for about three years. There he befriended Rolf de Maré, the wealthy Swede who founded the Swedish Ballet, Ballets Suédois, in 1920 and became his patron. The company performed in Paris from 1920 to 1925 and became one of the city’s most talked-about dance ensembles, with its blend of experimental stage design and performances that included, among other things, Siamese dance. According to Moderna Museet Malmö, Dardel and de Maré traveled together during the 1910s to Siam, North Africa, Japan, India, and China, and Dardel introduced de Maré to art dealers Wilhelm Uhde and Alfred Flechtheim in Paris. Through them, de Maré’s walls quickly filled with the leading avant-garde artists of the day.
His travels are visible in his paintings. Dardel’s influences are usually said to include Fauvism, Post-Impressionism, and Japanese woodblock prints, and he also briefly experimented with Cubism and Pointillism. Dance appears again in Jean Börlin in Siamese Dance from 1919, a painting of the Swedish dancer who choreographed for the Swedish Ballet. For anyone who likes Japanese lines and flat fields of color, it’s a good reminder that Dardel and Matisse shared an interest in the same thing: letting color carry the image. According to Cora, Dardel also studied briefly with Matisse himself.
The Waterfall and 25 million: how an overlooked modernist became a record-breaker
Dardel was not particularly appreciated during his lifetime. His breakthrough in Sweden coincided with the outbreak of the Second World War, when Liljevalchs Art Gallery organized a retrospective. By then, he had already spent years leading a nomadic life. In 1921, he married the writer Thora Klinckowström, with whom he had a daughter, Ingrid (1922–1962), who also became an artist. The marriage ended in divorce in 1934. From the 1930s, he shared his life with the writer Edita Morris. He died in New York in 1943, where the success he had hoped for never came, and is buried at Ekerö Cemetery outside Stockholm.
His legacy became spectacular. In 2012, The Waterfall sold for 25 million kronor, the highest price ever paid for a Swedish modernist painting at the time. That is one reason Waldemarsudde is now dedicating an entire spring and summer season to him. It is also one reason interest in his subjects is growing beyond museums. Next year, the Nationalmuseum is also presenting a major Nordic comparison, as we wrote about in our post on Akseli Gallen-Kallela 2027, making 2027 an unusually rich year for anyone who wants to understand Nordic modernism.
Dardel on the wall: color palette, format, and room
Dardel’s paintings have two things that are easy to bring home: a clear outline and a palette that shifts between saturated and muted. That makes them easy to pair with the rest of the room. If you’re looking for a poster in his spirit, the Swedish Artworks collection is a natural starting point, as it brings together motifs with a Nordic sense of color. If you’re looking for artists from the same era with the same desire to interpret reality, Artworks by Famous Artists offers a broader selection, while those dreaming of 1920s Paris will find the right atmosphere in the Parisian Collection.
Size and placement
Figurative scenes with several people, such as the deathbed in The Dying Dandy, need space to be viewed. Choose 50x70 cm or 70x100 cm above a sofa, a dresser, or in a hallway where you can see the picture from two or three meters away. In a narrower space, such as a study, 30x40 cm or 40x50 cm works better, ideally with two prints as a pair so the eye has something to move between. Keep in mind that Dardel’s pictures often have a lot of detail at the edges. A frame with a narrow molding and a mat adds breathing room without cutting into the colors.
Tip: Hanging a gallery wall? Place a motif with a dark, muted palette in the middle and move the most colorful ones toward the edges. That makes the gallery wall feel composed like a stage, which suits an artist who also worked in theater design.
Colors that work well with him
Dardel works with both dark and light walls. Against a deep green, blue-gray, or burgundy wall, the warm tones in his pictures almost glow. Against white or warm limewash, they become calmer and more graphic. To create contrast, you can hang a retro print from Retro and vintage posters next to it, giving the period atmosphere of the 1910s and 1920s more ways to express itself. If you like the French school, there’s a longer read in our guide to Matisse.
At the same time, keep in mind what makes Dardel unique. His irony means his pictures work just as well in bedrooms and dining rooms as in living rooms, but not in rooms where you want complete stillness. If relaxation is your top priority, choose one of his calmer landscapes or portraits rather than the most dramatic scenes.
One final piece of advice is about timing. The exhibition runs for almost six months, and it usually pays to buy art before a major museum year rather than during it, because interest in an artist often grows when the reviews come out. If the picture is already on your wall when you visit Waldemarsudde this spring, you’ll also have your own reference to compare with the originals, and you’ll see right away how much of the color survives in print.
Frequently asked questions about Nils Dardel
Are you following the exhibition this spring, or just want a piece of Swedish Modernism at home before then? Start with Swedish artworks or Artworks by famous artists, and book a visit to Waldemarsudde from March 20 to September 12, 2027, if you want to see the originals.