There! He Called, It’s Over There! 1912 CE
Encountering a mother and her two children, recently evicted from their home, Skulbjörn is moved by their plight.
John Bauer’s illustration There! He Called, It’s Over There!, created in 1912, draws the viewer into a magical and deeply atmospheric vision of Swedish folklore. Made for the children’s calendar Blue Bird, the work captures a dramatic moment from Einar Rosenborg’s fairy tale The Giant Who Slept for Ten Thousand Years. In the image, the giant Skulbjörn holds a small boy who points toward a distant city beneath a starry sky. Rendered in Bauer’s characteristic muted palette and delicate detail, the scene evokes both wonder and mystery, inviting the viewer into a meeting between the mythical world and the human one.
The Fairy Tale of Skulbjörn
In Einar Rosenborg’s The Giant Who Slept for Ten Thousand Years, Skulbjörn is one of five awkward giant brothers. As a child, already as large as a bear, he is struck on the head by a boulder during a playful quarrel and falls into a sleep that lasts ten thousand years. When he finally awakens, he discovers that a city has been built where he once lay sleeping, and his enormous movements shake the ground, terrifying the human “little folk.” During this strange encounter with a transformed world, he meets a mother and her two children who have been driven from their home. Moved by their suffering, Skulbjörn confronts the landlord responsible and restores the family’s shelter. Afterward, he leaves the city in search of peace, perhaps to sleep once more beneath a mountain. The tale combines wonder with compassion and reflects on time, change, and human hardship through the language of folklore.
John Bauer and Blue Bird
John Bauer, one of Sweden’s most celebrated illustrators, created this work during the height of the National Romantic period. The illustration was commissioned for the 1912 edition of Blue Bird, a children’s annual that sought to bring richly illustrated stories to young readers. Although Bauer is best known for his contributions to Among Gnomes and Trolls (1907–1915), his work for Blue Bird reveals a broader engagement with children’s publishing at a time when improvements in printing made illustrated books and annuals more widely accessible. The image accompanies Rosenborg’s tale of Skulbjörn and reflects Bauer’s remarkable ability to translate literary fantasy into a visual form that feels both intimate and monumental.
Folklore, Landscape, and Imagination
Bauer’s childhood in the forests of Småland deeply shaped his artistic imagination. His depictions of mythical beings and enchanted landscapes are rooted in close observation of nature, transformed through a poetic and often melancholic lens. In this illustration, Skulbjörn is imagined as a giant who is at once imposing and strangely human, dressed in animal hides and ornaments that connect him to an older, wilder world. The distant city and the luminous night sky suggest a moment of confrontation between ancient myth and modern life. This tension gives the image much of its power, as Skulbjörn appears suspended between two worlds: one timeless and legendary, the other newly built and unfamiliar.
National Romanticism and Meaning
The work holds an important place within the National Romantic movement, which sought to celebrate Sweden’s cultural heritage through literature and art. Bauer’s illustrations helped shape a shared visual language for Nordic folklore, making old tales vivid for new generations. The story of Skulbjörn, a giant awakening to a changed world and responding with compassion to human suffering, carries emotional and symbolic weight. It reflects themes of transformation, justice, and empathy, while also suggesting the unease of a society shaped by modern change. Bauer’s art frequently bridges the mythical past and the modern present, and this illustration is a particularly clear example of that meeting.
Technique and Format
The work is executed in watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper, measuring 22.5 × 21 cm (8.86 × 8.27 in.). Bauer’s technique here is marked by a subdued palette of brown-grey tones, enriched by black ink and delicate blue accents, especially in the night sky. Light and shadow are handled with great sensitivity, creating a dreamlike and slightly hushed atmosphere. The textures of Skulbjörn’s garments, the careful rendering of the small figure he holds, and the distant silhouette of the city all demonstrate Bauer’s gift for balancing fantasy with believable presence. Though modest in size, the illustration possesses a strong emotional and visual intensity.
Provenance
The illustration was originally created for the 1912 edition of Blue Bird. In more recent times, it was highlighted by Uppsala Auktionskammare in connection with an auction scheduled for December 2024, showing its continued significance within the art market and within the appreciation of Bauer’s work. Although its complete later ownership history is not fully documented here, the work appears to have remained valued within private collections or related archival contexts, in keeping with the enduring interest in Bauer’s artistic legacy.
