I am trying to find information oil painting called ""Meadows" and the
painter,  Juna Yalbroge.  It was probably painted at the turn of the
century (late 1800's or early 1900's).  It was destroyed in a fire and
I am trying to find a value.  The painting was of a stream and birch
trees and was 32 inches by 29 1/2 inches.  I would be happy to know
anything about the painter.  I am assuming I have spelled his name
correctly but am not sure.

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Request for Question Clarification by markj-ga on 09 Feb 2003 16:19 PST

podgrass --

Is your spelling of the name named based on your recollection of the
artist's written signature or is it based on the way you have heard
the name pronounced?

Are you sure the artist was Swedish?

markj-ga

Hello there,
Thank you for your question!
Once you said it was a swedish painter, and gave the name, I noticed
that the first and last name was not a normal swedish name.  After
some research, I've found the actual spelling of the last name:
Wahlberg.

I've managed to find a scanned image of an entire book that contains
practically every historic swedish artists and given the time frame
and the first name, I believe the artist is Johan August Wahlberg.  I
have found a person named "Jonas (Johnas) Wahlberg" which matches the
sound of the name better, but unfortunately, he is not a painter and
he lived about a century before the time frame we're looking at.
However, there's hardly any published information about Johan
Wahlberg.  The scanned image i mentioned has a detailed description
but it is written in swedish (soon to be translated):
Johan Wahlberg starts at the bottom right corner and goes on to the
next image
http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/img.pike?src=sbh/b0674&size=4
http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/img.pike?src=sbh/b0675&size=4

The only Wahlberg artist that is publically known and whose work I've
found for sale is Herman Alfred Leonard Wahlberg (I have some
suspicions that your painting might have been one by him). 
Information about Alfred Wahlberg is available in the swedish scans
(soon to be translated)
http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/img.pike?src=sbh/b0675&size=4
http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/img.pike?src=sbh/b0676&size=4
but it is also available in english as well.
Wahlberg, (Herman) Alfred (Leonard) 
(b Stockholm, 13 Feb 1834; d Tranċs, 4 Oct 1906). Swedish painter. He
received some tuition in drawing at the Royal Academy of Arts in
Stockholm, although he was never formally enrolled as a student. In
1857 he went to Düsseldorf where he was a student of Hans Fredrik
Gude. Swedish Landscape, Kolmċrden (1866; Stockholm, Nmus.) is
representative of Wahlberg’s Düsseldorf period. After a journey to the
Netherlands and Belgium he returned to Stockholm in 1862 and became a
member of the circle of artists around Karl XV
Grover Dictionary of Art has further information on him as well as
pictures of his work.
http://www.artnet.com/library/09/0903/T090369.asp
You can sign up for a 30 day free trial and access the database if you
wish to.

Now to the matter of estimating the price.  I have found some
estimations for Alfred Wahlberg's oil paintings; since both Alfred and
Johan lived in the same time frame, if the oil painting was by Johan,
the estimation from Alfred's oil paintings would give some appropriate
dollar values.
You can see some of Alfred's paintings at the following site; you may
recognize the style to be same/similar to the painting you possessed.
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=2343


Sothebys.com
If you scroll down the page, you will see the estimate say 6000-8000
US.
http://cgi.sothebys.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2160946375&category=28522

Go-Antiques
The price of this oil painting is listed as 7800 US
http://showcase.goantiques.com/texis,oil_wood_panel,3de406403d.html

While this "Meadows" might be an exception, considering the general
case for swedish oil on canvas paintings for that time frame, and the
size, the estimate would be $8000 US.

I hope this has helped,
Thank you,
Tox-ga

I am amazed and what tox-ga was able to find out for me.  It was worth
every penny and I thank this person profusely for the wonderful
research.  It exceeded anything I thought possible, and I am
incredulous at the amount of information tox-ga was able to fine. 
THANK YOU so very much.