Through a window next to the stairs in the museum, you can look into a workshop where they do various kinds of art restoration work.
A temporary exhibition of model ships (about 40 of them), built by six members of a model ship building society, who all have this as their hobby.
Last time I visited this museum was back in 2000. (That in turn may have been the first time I ever visited it - I'm not quite sure!) John Bauer's paintings (see previous post) were there back then as well, but a bit differently displayed. I also remember a temporary
exhibition they had back then, by the Swedish artist Ernst Billgren. The Art Museum in Borås also quite recently (last autumn) had a big exhibition by Billgren, covering his whole artist career. So this time, back in Jönköping, I had no difficulty immediately identifying this mosaic sculpture below as one of his:
"And landar på gädda av misstag"
"Duck lands on pike by mistake"
Ernst Billgren, 1991
(Mosaic sculpture, 141 cm high)
"Duck lands on pike by mistake"
Ernst Billgren, 1991
(Mosaic sculpture, 141 cm high)
The restaurant where we had lunch (second house on the left, entrance just by the lamp post) ["Hemma" = "At Home"]
After lunch, we went for a little stroll in the neighbourhood.
The building for Göta Hovrätt (the Göta Court of Appeal) in Jönköping was put into use in 1650
and is the building that has been in use the longest time for judiciary
purposes in Sweden.
The fountain in the market place (by artist John Lundqvist) is from the 1950s and pays homage to Magnus Ladulås (king of Sweden 1275-1290) who gave Jönköping its town privileges (borough rights) back in 1284. Actually Jönköping was the first town in Sweden to receive such rights. (I did not know that until looking things up just now...)
Jönköping is a town with quite a few well-preserved old wooden houses. And sometimes the back of these can be as interesting as the front!
A modern mural with a silhouette image of the town.
Bye bye, Jönköping ... or perhaps "au revoir"...
7 comments:
Jönköping looks a very interesting and beautiful place, good to explore. Love the three guys with the water-"trumpets" on the fountain! Your lunch looks delicious, and I like the wooden buildings. I wonder what they do to keep them that well for a long time; after all, wood is not the easiest material to withstand extreme weather conditions such as a typical Swedish winter.
I really like murals, and I love this one!! I have never seen a black & white one before, and it makes it look very elegant and rather old. I love all the wonderful ships, and how cool that you can look through the glass and watch the experts working on things. The duck sculpture has a wonderful sense of humor and whimsey, and I also like the stand. I love the colors and mosaic work. It appears to have some kind of Indian theme. The court building is so stern, truly looking like some kind of court, or even jail. But I do like the double staircase. On the other hand, the old courthouse building is very lovely. It does seem like it was bought by a church, as the insignia in the top center looks like something perhaps religious. But after the mural, I think my favorite is the marvelous fountain. How the water comes out of the boys' horns. I LOVE it!! Wish I could go here for a visit, it is truly delightful. And you took great pictures of the best things!
There's a couple of super ones there for me: the duck landing on the pike and the trumpeters at the fountain. However the buildings that you have shown are all very attractive and it's lovely to see some of the towns outside Borås.
Meike, there will be lots more photos of old wooden buildings from this trip. In Borås we haven't got many left because of four big fires back in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. But the towns along the shores of Lake Vättern seem to have been more lucky in that respect.
Ginny, the "insignia" on the old courthouse or town hall is the town arms, a gateway crowned with three towers. Once upon a time the town had a castle or fort, but there is nothing left of it now (it was destroyed in a fire back in the 1700s).
I'm happy myself to be able to show a bit more of Sweden, Graham - and this trip really did offer quite a variety of architecture and scenery, as you will see.
I have just re-read this post and forgot to mention the model ships which I would have really enjoyed seeing. I had a spell of being very interested (no I'm just interested) in naval warfare around the time of the Napoleonic Wars and those Men 0' War look magnificent.
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