The Olympian
Bosc d’Anjou posted a photo:
Ivan Lönnberg (1891-1918) Self portrait (1914). In the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm.
Lönnberg was an artist and a long distance runner who participated in the marathon at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. Two years later he moved to Paris to study art, but then World War I broke out. While many foreigners returned to their home countries at that point, Lönnberg was among the first to enlist in the French Foreign Legion. He later served in the French Airforce. Lönnberg was mortally wounded in combat near the end of the war and is buried at the Marcelcave Military Cemetery (Nécropole Nationale des Buttes) near Amiens.
This painting was a gift to his friend and sometime lover Nils Santesson, a Swedish sculptor, with whom he lived in Paris. They had planned to enlist together in the French Foreign Legion but Santesson was rejected.
