Emil Janel- Poker players 1934

This is a wonderful depiction of card players created in 1934. The figures are all different sizes approximately 7" high. Table is 11" x 9". All hand painted.
Emil Gottfred Janel was born in the village Hansjö near Orsa Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden. In 1923, Janel moved to Canada, then to Seattle, United States. After some encouragement by a local store keeper, he eventually settled in San Francisco with his wife and began study at what is now the San Francisco Art Institute. During the 1930s, he spent considerable time at Russian River, where he produced carvings of a local species of Alder Wood. It is said that he preferred that particular medium because of the similarity to flesh tones, and that he kept his carvings in a bucket of water to keep them wet while working on them. He used very thin aniline dyes on the non-flesh portions of his carvings. Emil is said to have referred to his style as "exaggerated realism".

In 1965 he was awarded The Royal Order of Vasa (Kungliga Vasaorden) by the King of Sweden for his artistic contributions. In 1981, Emil Janel died in San Francisco. Over 35 Janel carvings are part of the permanent collection of the American Swedish Institute.