Nils Dardel was born into the Swedish noble family von Dardel, son of the landowner Fritz August von Dardel and Sofia Matilda Norlin. His grandfather was the Swedish painter Fritz von Dardel, adjutant to the later king Charles XV of Sweden and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm, where Nils later studied between 1908–1920, and of which he eventually became a member in 1934. In 1919, he proposed to Nita Wallenberg, but her father, a Swedish diplomat, disapproved of Dardel and the marriage was not to be. This was linked closely to the creation of his work Exekution, which is said to be symbolic of the rejection. Nils Dardel married the author Thora Dardel, which lasted between 1921–1934. Together they had a daughter Ingrid von Dardel who like her father became an artist. Both her sons Henry Unger and Nils Ekwall in turn were also active Swedish artists. After the marriage to Thora, sometime in the 1930s Nils met Edita Morris, a Swedish writer with whom he shared his remaining life. - though she remained married to Ira Victor Morris.
Paris
After studying in Sweden he did as many of his contemporaries and traveled to Paris around 1910. Dardel primarily took inspiration from the Fauvists with their pure palette, the Post-Impressionists, as well as Japanese woodcuts. Dardel also made a brief foray into Cubism, and painted a few cityscapes in the style.
Post-Impressionism
Dardel explored Pointillism, using strong colors together with very clear motifs. Begravning i Senlis from 1913 typifies this style and was painted while Dardel was visiting a staying in the medieval town of Senlis. Another early painting was the portrayal German art dealerAlfred Flechtheim. Over the course of Dardel's life, he primarily painted humans, concentrating on portraiture or paintings of groups of people.
After living in Paris for three years, Dardel and Rolf de Maré became friends. Maré would later create the Ballets Suédois, which performed in Paris between 1920 and 1925. The friendship benefited Dardel as Maré was able to act as a benefactor for Dardel's art, and the duo is also claimed to have been fruitful for Maré's dance company. In the early 1920s, Dardel created a number of works based upon stage sets, and these have been likened to sketches of drama or film. Dardel also created the stage sets for Midsummer Wake, and Maison de Fous. Crime passionnel from 1921 is typical of Dardel's paintings from this era.
Travels
Nils was a prolific traveler, picking up influences and motives from different countries.
Later years
Dardel lived a nomadic life, traveling far and wide without ever really settling down. Many of his portraits are of people and places whom he met along his travels. He was known to be self-destructive. Not exceptionally appreciated in his lifetime, his breakthrough in Sweden came simultaneously to the breaking out of World War II in Europe, at the time when Liljevalchs konsthall displayed a retrospective of Dardel's life and works.
Legacy
Nils died in New York City in 1943, and was buried in Ekerö cemetery outside of Stockholm. His works are on display in a number of museums and galleries including Nationalmuseum, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Malmö konstmuseum, Nasjonalgalleriet and Waldermarsudde. His works Självporträtt and Visit hos en excentrisk dam were featured by the Swedish Postal-works 1988 stamp series Svenska konstnärer i Paris. His 1918 work Den döende dandyn was sold twice at record prices at Bukowskis in Stockholm; first in 1984 at 3,4 million kronor and again in 1988 for the then termed sensational 13 million kronor. Simultaneously the image took on an iconic role within the 1980s Swedish gay movement. His works came to be analyzed under the budding field of gender-studies, and the ambivalence of the sex of his characters were topic of study.
Dardel's work Vattenfallet sold for 25 million kronor in 2012 and was to date the most expensive modernist Swedish painting ever sold. The buyer was an undisclosed individual. The record in turn supplanted the earlier record held by the Dying Dandy.
