On the night between 19 and 20 November 1918, the steamship S/S Per Brahe steered from Jönköping towards Stockholm. In Jönköping, the ship had been loaded with iron stoves, ploughshares, sewing machines and a large number of barrels of fruit mash. Nothing could fit in the hold, so some cargo was placed on deck.

In the evening, they reached Gränna, where additional cargo, including six tons of potatoes and two tons of pears, was taken on board. Eight passengers also boarded there, including the artist John Bauer, his wife Esther, and their three-year-old son Bengt, called Putte.
The family was to move to Stockholm, but after the severe train accident at Getå on October 1 of the same year, in which at least 42 people died – still the most serious train accident in Sweden – Esther refused to go by train. She insisted they go with ”Pelle”, as Per Brahe was called, as she felt it would be safer.

The S/S Per Brahe departed Gränna at 11 p.m. and set its sights on Hästholmen, but it never arrived. During the voyage, strong winds had already blown up to full gale force, and it would appear that the cargo on deck had not been lashed down. When the wind caught the ship, it was tossed around, trapping the passengers inside the boat. Some of the cargo fell off the ship, but the result was that the bow eased, and the S/S Per Brahe sank with the stern ahead. Twenty-four people, including the crew, died that night, and by daybreak on November 20, only wreckage could be seen on the surface of Lake Vättern.

John Bauer, who was 36 years old at the time of his death, and Esther Ellqvist Bauer, 38, met at the Art Academy/Academy for the Free Arts, where they studied. John Bauer had shown artistic talent early on, and Esther came from a family where you can sense an artistic vein; three of her five siblings, two brothers and a sister, became active photographers.

Both John and Esther began their studies at the Art Academy in 1900, where Esther was directed to study at the ”Department for Women” while she also studied etching at Tallberg’s Etching School. Their relationship, which was to be characterised by an intense love filled with passion, jealousy and ambivalence, began two years later, in 1902. On December 18, 1906, they were married, and Esther became the model for, among other things, John Bauer’s Princess Tuvstarr.

She reluctantly found that her artistic career was put on hold.
While Esther’s creations were paused, John made a name for himself, not least through his now legendary illustrations in the storybook series ”Among Gnomes and Trolls”, a work he began in 1907. Two years earlier, in 1905, he had spent time in Abisko as part of the work for a magnificent work about Norrland. His fairy tale drawings would be influenced by Norrland nature and the clothing he saw around him among the Sami he tried to come into contact with.

The couple travelled together, but while the fellow artists went to Paris, the Bauers travelled to Italy via Germany in 1908. John’s father paid for the trip, and they stayed for two years. John is fascinated by the classical art in Florence, where they live, but only gives a little to modern art. On June 10, 1908, John writes, ”Almost every evening, we go to one of the small villages outside Florence. These trips in the evenings while the air-cooled were lovely. The small villages are Italian in their beauty. It would take too much paper and effort to describe something like that. Small, excellent taverns with good wine and bad food. Chime of churchbells, candlelight and processions. So when darkness falls, these innumerable fireflies flash in the gloom under the olives like stars turning on and off. We have had evenings so full that they cannot be forgotten.”

After almost ten years of marriage, the son Putte was born in 1915, and the marriage had already begun to fall apart. Esther longs for Stockholm, where she not only studied but also grew up, and John is drawn to the forests, where he seems to feel most at home, identifying with his paintings: ”Sometimes I’m John Bauer, sometimes I’m a troll”.

He also has high demands on Esther. In a letter dated 1905, he states that he has put her on a high pedestal and is disappointed when he sees human features in her.
John and Esther have already exchanged letters intensively from the beginning, and in an undated letter, he writes to her:
”It’s probably easier for us to come to terms with each other in writing than orally. Some of what you wrote I also think is true. First and foremost. We can never be the same that we no longer live together, I realised most clearly this summer? but I was not strong enough to speak in the matter. For Putte’s sake, I have tried to avoid a real divorce. Now I think that all 3 of us feel better in the long run from one of these. It cannot be called hasty…”

Despite this, they set off together for a newly built house in Stockholm, where they would each have a studio. Esther intends to resume her artistry, but they never arrive.

S/S Per Brahe is found at a depth of 30 meters, and to begin with, no divers who want to inspect the wreck can be found. In the end, the diver Ernest Lagerström signs up as a volunteer, and when he goes down to the wreck, he quickly sees that the biggest reason for the sinking is the cargo.

It was also found that the crew managed to get on deck after all and that a lifeboat was partially detached, which could have saved at least some of the passengers.
When the ship is salvaged four years after the sinking, on August 12, 1922, the Bauer family is found in the saloon. A thick layer of mud has settled over everything, including the bodies of the dead.

This has almost turned them into sculptures, and in the evening salon, Esther is found on her knees, crouched over three-year-old Putte to protect him with her body.
John is found on the stairs, head down and feet up, as if he was trying to get on deck but was stopped by the rushing water, which possibly knocked him over.
John, Esther and Putte Bauer rest in the Eastern Cemetery in Jönköping.

Letter from the Bauers’ friends Bengt and Elna Hedberg, with whom they had dinner before boarding the Per Brahe, to John’s parents:

Gränna d. November 23 1918
“Mr. and Mrs. Bauer!
Although completely unfamiliar to you, my husband and I would like to express our heartfelt participation in the severe grief that has befallen you. John, Ester and Putte were with us for dinner before they met Per Brahe, and I thought you would like to know how we were then.

Among other things, they talked about how John had so desperately wanted to take Putte with him to Jönköping to show him to his mother but that they were afraid of the Spanish flu. John sat and told about, when he was a little boy, how scared he was of the police, and then he told about how he once fell down and got a ladder over him, but didn’t hurt himself worse than he when he got to see the owner of the ladder, could wedge himself between the holes and run for dear life.

Then we all lay on the floor and played steamboat, left upside down on some chair, stool, or table. Putte had so much fun that he jumped and screamed with delight.
Who could have guessed that a few hours later, something so horrific would happen?
We heard that it was a bit windy, so John and I went a couple of times and looked out, but we concluded that they would have a tailwind.

What both I and my husband reproached us with is that we did not go with them to the lake because then there is a possibility that they could have been persuaded not to travel, even though they were so eager to get away to their new home. John has asked the captain in the harbour if all the life belts and boats were in order.
He must have had some premonition when he saw how heavily the boat was loaded.

Today, soul ringing has rung over them, and all the houses have flags at half-mast.
I dare not think how it must feel for your poor, poor parents when it can be so difficult for us, their friends. With heartfelt participation.
Bengt and Elna Hedberg”