Lars Gillis
- historical reconstruction paintings

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS/MURALS | DRAWINGS

This page is dedicated to one of those many talented persons who stood up and added their special magic to make this project what it was. With very small means the Gothenburg historical reconstruction painter Lars Gillis Larsson helped create visual images on how things had been, and what it would look like, if we only managed to build the ship. And make the journey.

Since the project was started by a very small group of enthusiasts with an idea and a muddy plot of industrial wasteland we had actually just borrowed from the Eriksberg Development Co., there were very little to show the few visitors that could be lured out to take a look at what we were up to.

For many, many years there were nothing even remotely like a ship to show. All we could do was to tell about our dream and try to make our visitors see it too. As soon as we at least got the shipyard going, Lars Gillis' talent became instrumental in showing the next steps. During these years the shipyard was our second home and I personally can't imagine the project without his paintings. A web page dedicated to his work is long overdue.

Café Door tromp leu of a ships window. Gothenburg Harbor Entrance Mural (left) Lars Gillis found it a good idea to brighten up the inside of the shipyard café door with a tromp leu painting of a ships window and the happy face of the project founder Anders Wästfelt peering in. Acrylic on plywood. Painting by Lars Gillis, 1996. In the background the 7 meter long view of the Gothenburg harbor entrance can be partly seen displayed on the souvenir shop wall. Both paintings probably lost when the shipyard was demolished..

The first concern when planning the shipyard area was to make it a nice and interesting place to visit. This was an absolute necessity since that was how the sponsors eventually would be met and introduced to the project for many years to come. The problem of how to make everybody else see what we saw was to some extent solved by Lars Gillis.

Gotheborg III Shipyard "Terra Nova" Mural of Gothenburg Harbor Entrance (center), Acrylic on hardboard, 2x7 meter, 1996. This is what the Gotheborg III shipyard 'Terra Nova' looked like in the summer of 1996. In the center of the shipyard public square is the 2 x 7 meter long mural of the Gothenburg harbor entrance, displayed on the souvenir shop wall. The painting was lost when the shipyard was demolished. .

Towards a promise of eventually getting paid when we had got the first real sponsors. Lars went about to paint a mural, 7 meter long, that was promptly displayed on the wall of the Shipyard's souvenir shop. It was showing the harbor entrance as it would have appeared from the place where we stood in front of it, looking in towards the city. This was the starting point for every guided tour on the shipyard that was ever held. Eventually the sponsor's appearance didn't come about just yet, so Anders Wästfelt made good his promise and paid himself.

Food supplies on board Reconstruction painting for the book "Jan-Erik Nilsson: Food on-board Swedish East Indiamen (MS)". Painting in acrylic on canvas, by Gillis Larsson.

One of the things that captivated the imaginations of the visitors was to listen to how the crew lived on-board, and how live animals in great numbers needed to be kept on-board - together with the sailors - to provide fresh eggs, milk and eventually meat. When this was painted the keel was just barely laid out and there were no way to really know how the ship would look inside. But Gillis could help. It eventually turned out to be remarkable correct.

The East Indiaman Gotheborg III under sail This was maybe the most visionary and important paintings that was made for the project. For the first time we had a picture we could call our own that could show what the ship we had actually started to build would look like when she sailed. On the painting she looks lower then she actually turned out to be, which is correct. .

This painting was used on the cover of the Gothenburg Post Issue 4, August 1996. The printing and distribution of this 16 page newspaper in 360,000 copies along with the regular GP newspaper, was a sponsorship effort from GP, at that time one of the absolutely most important sponsors of the project. I wouldn't say that we had unlimited access to as many ads that we wanted but, almost.

Project conceptualization as it appeared here in full, editor and main contributor of the texts was Jan-Erik Nilsson, photographer Sten Zachrisson whom I traveled around with for a week, to take all pictures we needed for this magazine.

With this, the popularity of the project and the support from the common population in Gothenburg now reached the proportions that if you said you worked for the project and needed to go to the shipyard area, a taxi driver would send you there for free. (I experienced this myself from a driver who had no idea about who I was.) The commitment and the volunteers free work towards something as impossible as this, had captured the hearts of the people and everybody wanted to give a hand. Still the large sponsors were biding their time and only a few had committed to some support, mostly in the form of products.

Cooking on board Painting based on a reconstruction drawing for "Jan-Erik Nilsson: Food on-board Swedish East Indiamen (MS)"..

The ship's pantry was located near the fore of the ship so that the smoke that came out from the fire would sweep out forward from the ship. Actually, since there are not one single original Swedish East Indiaman preserved anywhere it was a bit hard to know how it actually would have looked. This reconstruction painting with two fires, one for the common crew and one for the officers appears reasonable believable. This area on board is in general not much noticed and if the fireplaces ever appear in any excavations, it is usually in the form of a pile of bricks.

Table setting around 1745 Painting based on a reconstruction drawing for "Jan-Erik Nilsson: Food on-board Swedish East Indiamen (MS)"..

"Osbeck's Pounche" served on Board Painting based on a reconstruction drawing for "Jan-Erik Nilsson: Food on-board Swedish East Indiamen (MS)"..

Dining at the "First Table" on board Reconstruction painting and intended book cover for "Jan-Erik Nilsson: Food on-board Swedish East Indiamen (MS)"..

When looking at this painting it is hard to remember that at the time of Lars' painting this picture, there were barely a keel stretched at the shipyard area and that there were nothing like a ship to look at. Still this painting came out very close to reality as it turned out to look like.

Cross-section of the Gotheborg III (preliminary plan) Acrylic on canvas. Painted for the Gotheborg III magazine as a basis for a sponsoring effort that aimed at asking sponsors to pay for one item at a time.

At the time of this painting not much was settled on how the interior eventually would look. The most solid document we had at this time was a paper by Eric Lincoln, (Maskinsystem ombord Ostindiefararen Götheborg III. Examensarbete omfattande 4 p. Inst. för maskinteknik, Ing. o Sjöbefälsskolan vid Chalmers Tekniska Högskola 1994) a maritime engineer at that time studying at CTH and one of the participants in the original project Managing Committee. That paper outlined his thoughts on how to carefully modernize an old ship construction towards something that could actually be sailed. I belive that it was Eric that finally killed my dream of having live cattle onboard, something that later generations of people who have actually sailed with our ship has all reasons to be grateful for.

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