The Princess and the Trolls 1913 CE
A watercolor from 1913, depicting a forest scene with trolls and a princess, rendered with subtle colors and detailed forms.
Midsummer light lingers, but the scene is anything but safe. A princess moves deeper into the forest among trolls who seem to belong to the earth itself—heavy, watchful, and almost grown out of root and rock. What makes the image so compelling is that Bauer does not treat the forest as a backdrop. It feels like a living world into which the human figure has passed only provisionally, and perhaps at some risk.
A Fairy-Tale Image from Among Gnomes and Trolls
This watercolor was created in 1913 as an illustration for Helena Nyblom’s story The Changelings, published in the much-loved Swedish annual Among Gnomes and Trolls. By this point, Bauer had become the artist most closely associated with the visual world of Scandinavian folklore, and his contributions to the series helped define its atmosphere for generations of readers. This image belongs to that central period of his career, when fairy tale, forest, and myth were fused into a world that felt at once ancient and immediate.
Bianca Maria in the Forest
The subtitle, “One evening at midsummer, they walked with Bianca Maria deep into the forest,” gives the scene its quiet narrative charge. The moment is not dramatic in an obvious way, but Bauer fills it with unease. The princess is present among the trolls, yet remains entirely separate from them, and that separation is what animates the image. It is as though she has crossed into a realm where she can be seen, surrounded, and guided, but never fully belong.
Trolls as Part of Nature
One of Bauer’s most distinctive qualities is the way his trolls seem inseparable from the landscape. They do not enter the forest as creatures passing through it; they appear to emerge from it, sharing its mass, texture, and age. In this image, that fusion is especially strong. The trolls are not simply antagonists in a fairy tale. They are embodiments of the wild, untamed world itself, set against the pale fragility of the princess.
That contrast also reflects a broader cultural pattern in Bauer’s work. His princesses often carry an idealized innocence, while the trolls belong to something older, less human, and more deeply rooted in the natural world. The meeting between them becomes a meeting between vulnerability and the unknown.
A Dreamlike View of Swedish Folklore
This painting also speaks to the early 20th-century fascination with folklore as a space where national imagination, childhood, and mystery could converge. Bauer’s illustrations gave visual form to that longing. They did not simply make old tales visible; they turned them into emotionally persuasive environments, places readers could almost enter. In The Princess and the Trolls, that dreamlike quality is especially strong, but it is never merely comforting. Wonder and threat exist side by side.
Watercolor and Atmospheric Precision
The artwork is a watercolor on paper measuring 25 × 25 cm (9.8 × 9.8 inches). Bauer uses the medium with great sensitivity, allowing subtle shifts of tone and carefully controlled detail to shape the forest and its inhabitants. Light and shadow are balanced with unusual finesse, and the softness of the watercolor helps the trolls merge into their surroundings without losing their presence. The result is both delicate and deeply atmospheric.
Preserved at the Nationalmuseum
After its creation in 1913, The Princess and the Trolls was acquired by the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm in 1914. It has remained there ever since, continuing to stand as one of the memorable examples of Bauer’s ability to turn Swedish folklore into something visually intimate, mysterious, and enduring.
