John Albert Bauer (4 June 1882 – 20 November 1918) was a Swedish painter and illustrator. His function is concerned later landscape and mythology, but he after that composed portraits. He is best known for his illustrations of early editions of Bland tomtar och troll (Among Gnomes and Trolls), an anthology of Swedish folklore and fairy tales.
Bauer was born and raised in Jönköping. At 16 he moved to Stockholm to breakdown at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. While there he established his first commissions to illustrate stories in books and magazines, and met the artiste Ester Ellqvist, whom he married in 1906. He traveled throughout Lappland, Germany and Italy further on in his career, and these cultures terribly informed his work. He painted and illustrated in a romantic nationalistic style, in part influenced by the Italian Renaissance and Sami cultures. Most of his works are watercolors or prints in monochrome or muted colours; he moreover produced oil paintings and frescos. His illustrations and paintings broadened the understanding and wave of Swedish folklore, fairy tales and landscape.
When Bauer was 36, he drowned, together as soon as Ester and their son Bengt, in a shipwreck on Lake Vättern in southern Sweden.
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