By searching for his art, I was able to find so much more about him! from what I read, Sune Bergman was a self taught artist, born May 23, 1890 in Nederkalix.
"Bergman is an artist self-taught. Separate appearances, he has held in Örnsköldsvik, Luleå, Piteå 1924 and 1925, Norrtälje 1929 and in Uppsala in 1931 and 1933. Participated in 1939 in an exhibition at Norrbotten Museum in Lulea. In his images - often performed with glow plugs on birch bark, Bergman depicted Lapp life ("Break the nomadic school" in 1939, high school in Kalix). As an artist he worked with linocut."
Litt, "An Artist Norrbotten and Lapland portrayer" (in the Daily News 1/11 1925)
Glow plugs and birch bark!! There's the name of one of his books! Ok, it makes so much sense now!
"Sune Bergman belonged to the calix family that owned Waldemarsudde in Stockholm, Johan Bergman-Olson was the titular owners during 1800 talet.Släkten sold Waldemarsudde til Prince Eugene in 1899. Sune Bergman has also illustrated the book "With the covered sleigh Kalix Waldemarsudde" as another relative, Gunnar Bergman, wrote in 1959.Den enkle Farmer's son Johan Bergman-O from Näsbyn Kalix took apart the W-tip several properties in Sthlms inner-city-one of their offices he had on the wharf-addition, he owned several mansions in Norrbotten. He became one of the largest shipowners but also ran the other companies. He was a big contributor to the arts, but above all to "needy" in Lapland."
- Some good info obtained from a forum query made in 2009 over at AntikPrat. (link also has some more examples of his drawings.)
The most important information I found came from that forum. It mentions his parents, Johan August Bergman and Emma Ingeborg Taube. And that he was married in 1923 with Linnea Jonsson.
And there it was. The link to Sune.... Linnea Jonsson. As in, Emma Linnea Jonsson from my family tree. Born October 15th in 1893 in Nederkalix..... My Great grandfather's sister. Sune Bergman was my grandfather's uncle. He was brother in law to my great grandparents. So my assumption from the notes in the books was wrong. He WAS family! It feels great to finally know who Sune is. But we are still left with the confusion of these drawings.
You can compare others of Sune's with the ones our family has.... This first one of the tree is the one I have hanging on my wall. Bottom corner says "ART." I compared this with the one found here, and the branches seem to be styled the same. They look similar in style.
These are the others that are owned by our family.....
Now, compare the cabin of the last with the picture from Sune's book, below. It looks familiar.
There are more drawings from his books that look similar to the drawing of the other cabin, complete with the walking planks and all. Also there are several examples in his book illustrations of his background trees, which are identical to what you see in these pictures.
The confusion is, we were told these belonged to my grandfather, Arthur Jonsson (Sune's nephew.) That in itself is not disputed. But there is confusion when it comes to who drew them. The story that came to us, was that these drawings on wood were drawn by my grandpa, Arthur Jonsson when he was visiting Sweden as a boy. It also says ART. in the bottom corners of the drawings. But after researching, these are drawn on the same surfaces (wood and masonite) of the same size and with the same mediums (glow plugs and crayons) that was attributed to Sune's unique artwork. The styles are also strikingly similar.
So, I think these may be Sune's. The only way I can explain the similarities is that perhaps Sune taught my grandfather how to do this. But, what accounts for such striking similarities? You'd think my grandfather would have his own style as he was learning. So the confusion still stands. Did the hand that drew these belong to my grandfather, or his uncle, Sune Bergman?
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