Einar Nerman
Einar Nerman (6 October 1888 – 30 March 1983) was a Swedish visual artist known for his portraits, book and magazine illustrations and theatrical designs.
Also recorded as Ejnar Nerman
Einar Nerman

Svenska moderna skämttecknare. · Public domain
- Name
- Einar Nerman
- Born
- 6 October 1888
- Birthplace
- Norrköping, Sweden
- Died
- 30 March 1983
- Place of death
- Lidingö, Sweden
- Education
- Konstnärsförbundets skola, Académie Matisse, Académie Colarossi
- Known for
- Caricatures, paintings
- Nationality
- Sweden
- Occupation
- painter · illustrator · draftsperson · caricaturist · graphic designer
- Fields
- young adult literature
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Documentary summary
Einar Nerman (6 October 1888 – 30 March 1983) was a Swedish visual artist known for his portraits, book and magazine illustrations and theatrical designs.
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Note VALÉORINE
Einar Nerman (1888–1983) was a Swedish caricaturist, draftsperson and graphic designer, among other activities. The caricaturist was born in Norrköping. Einar Nerman was active in young adult literature.
Genres include portrait. Works by the caricaturist are held at Nationalmuseum.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q4125863 · wikipedia · Einar Nerman
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Einar Nerman • Born — 6 October 1888 • Birthplace — Norrköping, Sweden • Died — 30 March 1983 • Place of death — Lidingö, Sweden • Education — Konstnärsförbundets skola, Académie Matisse, Académie Colarossi • Known for — Caricatures, paintings • Relatives — Birger Nerman (twin brother) Ture Nerman (older brother)
Early life and education
Early life and education
He grew up in a middle-class family in Norrköping with his twin brother, archeologist Birger Nerman, and older brother, Swedish Communist leader Ture Nerman. Their parents were Janne Emanuel Nerman and Ida Anna Adéle Nordberg. In 1905 Nerman dropped out of Norrköping Gymnasium High School and enrolled into the Konstnärsförbundets skola in Stockholm. In 1908 he went to Paris to study with Henri Matisse at the Académie Matisse and at the Académie Colarossi. In 1910 he published Artists which contained cartoons and caricatures. In 1912 he returned to Sweden to study music and dance at the drama school of Elin Svensson. The young artist exhibited with the male-only Avant-garde group "De unga" (1907–1911), an association that defied the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. During the 1911 exhibition Nerman's drawings were shown alongside sculptures by Ivar Johnsson, graphics by Artur Sahlén, and miniatures by Fanny Falkner. He provided illustrations for "The Swineherd" (1912) by Hans Christian Andersen and "Gösta Berlings: pictures" (1916). He also illustrated the children's picture books Crow's Dream (1911), Stars (1913), and illustrations for the novel Short Cavalier stories (1918) by Selma Lagerlöf. In 1918 he met Ivor Novello in a night-club in Stockholm who suggested Nerman should draw the stars of the West End of London. In 1919 he visited London as a ballet dancer, performing in a variety at the London Coliseum. When he discovered that they were to tour the provincial music halls as well, he broke his contract and returned to Sweden.
Career
Career
In 1921 Nerman moved to London to work on a weekly page of theatrical caricatures for The Tatler. He also submitted caricatures of musicians performing at the Royal Albert Hall and elsewhere to the fashionable magazine Eve: The Lady's Pictorial. When his friend Ivor Novello opened the "Fifty-fifty" club for theater people, Nerman was asked to decorate the walls. In 1923 he published the children's book Knight Finn Komfusenfej. In 1925 he collaborated with Christine Doorman on Selma Lagerlöf: her life and works in Mårbacka. He made the illustrations for the 1928 edition of Thumbelina, by Hans Christian Andersen. In 1929 he published Darlings of the gods: in music hall, revue, and musical comedy to compile his caricatures of theater stars featured in The Tatler since 1922. The same year his caricatures were in The second minuet by English composer Maurice Besly, with foreword by British novelist Alec Waugh. In 1930, Nerman returned to Sweden and bought Hersbyholm, an 18th-century house in Lidingö. By then, he and his wife Kajsa Susanne had three children. During World War II the family relocated to New York City where Nerman was hired by the New York Journal-American to draw Hollywood stars like Joan Crawford and Alfred Hitchcock, among them Swedish friends Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman. In 1939 he published A trip to gingerbread land. In 1944 Nerman published Portraits by Nerman. In 1946 he published Caricature and illustrated Fairy Tales from the North, a collection of fairy tales from Denmark, Sweden and Norway by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen. In 1950 Nerman returned to Lidingö where he became a member of the Association of Swedish Professional Illustrators and Graphic Designers. In 1964 he illustrated "The Goose Girl" by the Brothers Grimm. In 1969 he published The wedding in Valpköping and other animal tales. He died in 1983.
Gallery
Gallery
• Illustration — Norrköping Gymnasium High School 1894 • Illustration — Einar and Kajsa on their wedding day • Illustration — Einar Nerman • Illustration — Young artists
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Norrköping.
Birth place
Lidingö Parish.
Death place
Legacy
Nerman acknowledged he was influenced during his youth by oriental artists, Norwegian artist Olaf Gulbransson, and Henri Matisse; later on also by Aubrey Beardsley and Ralph Barton. He made the illustrations for many of the books of Swedish Nobel Prize in Literature Selma Lagerlöf and earned a name in his country for designing all images behind the Solstickan matchbox. He also made many of the artistic book covers for his brother Birger's published writings and wrote songs and composed music to many of his brother Ture's poems. In 2020 his portraits of Einar Jolin (1908), Isaac Grünewald (1907), Hanna Maria Sahlström in an interior (1911) were sold at auction.
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q4125863: Einar Nerman
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Einar Nerman”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 4
- Einar Nerman: "Caricature", Holme Press Incorporated, 1946.
- Sandy Wilson: "Caught in the act", George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, Great Britain 1976.
- Maria Nikolajeva, Carole Scott: "How picturebooks work", Psychology Press, 2001, p. 60.
- Elina Druker, Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer: "Childrens books in the avant-garde", John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2015, pp. 45, 49, 62 & 63.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q4125863: Einar NermanWikimedia Foundation
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Citizenship
1- SwedenPlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Illustration
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- Eiji UsatsukaIllustrator
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- Einar von StrokirchIllustrator
- Eivind NielsenIllustrator
- Ekaterina VasilyevaIllustrator
- Ekua HolmesIllustrator
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