The Boy Who Wouldn't Die - On the Book "I'm Adding Sunshine to My Paint"

Five years old, Harald Sandberg (1912-1983) came down with a double-sided pneumonia. Three doctors in Söderhamn, a city in northern Sweden, said that there was nothing they could do. (This was in the time when the Spanish flue killed tens of millions of people around the world.)

Harald survived, but the disease damaged his heart, and he was told that he was unlikely to see his tenth birthday. He looked forward to that day with trepidation, but it was his father who died on that day, 39 years old.

Early on, Harald wanted to become an artist, but a doctor said that his heart was too week for him to continue school and suggested that he should become a hairdresser. Which he did, and a successful one at that, but he never gave up on his dream.

“I’m Adding Sunshine to My Paint” tells the story of the first four decades of Harald Sandberg’s life, from his birth on August 13, 1912, to the end of 1955, when he had accomplished his childhood’s dream of becoming an artist – a painter. He had had his first solo exhibits in Stockholm as well as a very successful exhibit in Paris. By then he had also brought three children into the world together with his wife Constance.

“I’m Adding Sunshine to My Paint” includes a diary that Harald wrote in 1946 during a critical phase of his struggle to become an artist. It also contains two interviews made during the last two years of his life, as well as over 100 photos and illustrations.

The book was written by his son Hans Sandberg.

Over the coming months, I will post excerpts from the book - both texts and pictures - here and on my substack for the book. 

Scan the QR code below to find my book on Amazon.

I’m Adding Sunshine to My Paint -- Harald Sandberg’s Path to the Arts

Here is the English print edition of the book about my father's struggle to become and artist.
“I’m Adding Sunshine to My Paint” is a book about the first four decades of Harald Sandberg’s life and career, from his birth in the Northern Swedish coastal city of Söderhamn to the end of 1955 when he had achieved his childhood’s dream of becoming an artist and painter, despite a severe heart ailment. Besides, he had three children together with his wife Constance, who would remain his partner in work and love all through his life.