The fairy tale illustrations of John Bauer had a huge impact on me as a child! The (not that big and dark albeit rather similar) woods on the island in the archipelago where we spent our summers easily turned into the deep deep forests of his with all it' strolls, elves and huldras, princes and princesses. We had a poster of the little boy and the troll on the wall in my grandmother's cabin and I have spent several years falling to sleep staring at it.
Bauer was born in the late 19th century and began his career painting and illustrating int he early 1900's; his style being very contemporary for that time. He was renowned for his work and was already then thought of as Sweden's foremost fairytale illustrator. His little boy- and princess characters were inspired by his son and wife. John Bauer and his family drowned when a boat they were on sank in the big Vättern lake in 1918.
