This essay examines the final part of the life of former volunteer foreign legionary Sven Blom, and is part of a project which started in 2017 with my first essay: Red Trousers and Watery Mud. : Sven Blom’s Experience of the First World War: a Case-study, which explores the Swedish volunteer Sven Bloms’ experience of the First World War in the French foreign legion. My second essay: Dear Mr. Blom: Swedish Voices from the Western Front (2019), widens the scope to the other Swedish volunteers which served in the French foreign legion through their letters sent to Sven.In this final essay, I examine Sven Bloms life after the war through the source material in his archive. The overarching question posed to the material is: How does Sven Bloms thoughts, literary texts, letters and life compare and connect with the mentality and discourses present in France and Paris after Sven’s involvement in the First World War? Based on the use of Microhistorical theory, several parts of Sven’s life are examined in order to answer the large question through the small life that was Sven’s: How did he lead his life to his death in 1931, and what part did he play in the social circles which he took part in? How did he remember his fallen comrades and the war which claimed their lives? And how does his own writings, letters and diaries reflect on his view on life, and the war? Through the obituaries of Sven Blom, how is he remembered by his friends? And how does previously unexplored source material about Sven Bloms early life and demobilization help explain his agency?Through Sven Bloms eyes we are given a window into a postwar France and Paris torn by war and filled with a desire for life, having experienced want and death. Sven lived through these “Les années folles”, “the roaring twenties” of French society. Through Sven we are given access to the French process of healing, and through his experiences and thoughts, shared by many, he gives an account of a nation, a city and a people moving forward.

This thesis will explore and compare two artists who at first meeting seem to have very littlein common more than being two modernist artists. The Swedish artist Nils Dardel and theMexican artist Frida Kahlo, even though the obvious differences — sex and nationality —came to have quite similar fates. Both artists were bisexual, came across death at an early age and as a consequencewould die rather young too, and in life would both struggle with pain and anxiety. The twoartist never met in life even though their similarities, and still after life their fates wouldcontinue on a similar path as they both after death would receive greater recognition. Nils Dardels and Frida Kahlos art is filled with emotions and portray themes that stilltouches people who comes across them today. What is it in their art that touches so manypeople, and do they have similar themes just as the similar aspects in their lives. These themes and two artists will be studied and analysed in this thesis. This thesispresents biographical background and will through a semiotic and comparative methodanalysis a total of six artworks made by the artists. This thesis by these methods will alsoexamine the two artists later receptions and try to explain how they came to be.