Hans Arnold (1925-2010)

For more than fifty years, Hans Arnold was best known for his distinctive horror imagery, while also creating fairy-tale motifs and surrealist works.

Hans Arnold was born in Sursee, Switzerland, in 1925. Raised in a strict Catholic environment, he grew up with vivid ideas of heaven and hell. His school years were marked by harsh discipline, and he began drawing caricatures of his teachers, selling them to his classmates.

Arnold studied art in Lucerne and later trained with a film animator. In 1946, he moved to Paris, where he briefly worked at an animation studio, attended life-drawing classes, and immersed himself in the city’s cultural life.

He arrived in Sweden in 1948 and soon established himself as an illustrator. His imaginative and often unsettling images made him widely known, particularly through his work for Swedish newspapers and magazines. Over the decades, he developed a broad and loyal following, and his work has continued to attract new audiences through exhibitions.

In 1955, Arnold married artist and author Vera Nordin, and the following year their twins, Ylva and Björn, were born. He lived and worked in Stockholm until his death in 2010.