Danish Hans Scherfig (1905-1979) is widely admired throughout Scandinavia as both an author and painter.
He wrote several acclaimed books such as The Dead Man (1937) and the Missing Head (1938). He is also a self-taught painter, and he became a full time artist after his first exhibition in 1928.
He always loved to go to the Zoon and the Botanical Gardens, and this passion can be seen in his distinctive paintings which depict jungle and savanna scenes in a charming, naive manner.
“Scherfig’s jungle paintings, inhabited by elephants, tapirs, okapis and monkeys, are part of every Dane’s visual cultural heritage. Scherfig was a communist and a man of his times. The jungle paintings are images of ideal utopian societies with room for everyone. They express the artist’s longing for a better world.” – Arken Museum
Some of his work is available on Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers. You can also admire his paintings at Arken Museum until Jamuary.
