18th and 19th century art in Sweden

th
18
th
19
and
century art
in Sweden
From last lecture
The artist
•  Craftsmen became artists
•  Increased focus on the theoretical and intellectual
parts of the artists work
•  The self image of the artist. Making self portraits
•  The academies – a new way of learning the
profession
•  Ehrenstrahl held the first academy-like activity in his
atelier in the 1670’s. Not yet official academies
The artists self-image
David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl
Mikael Dahl
•  Both of these show a self awareness, and idea that he – as an
indvidual is doing something important. The difference lies in
how it’s shown. Ehrenstrahl to the left portrays himself as
surrounded by mythical muses that inspires him, while Dahl
projects an image that says that the art comes from him and him
alone. His more relaxed pose signifies a different approach to
the role of being an arists. Ehrenstrahl came from Hamburg and
was the first court painter to be “imported”. He had a very
strong position.
Female artists
•  Most documented artist are male, and most artists
were
•  Female artists were often family members, such as
daughters, of famous artist
•  Examples: Maria Ehrenstrahl, Wendela and
Johanna Christina Rudebeck
Architect – a new profession
•  Arose in the 17th century outside the guilds
•  The act of building and the act of planning/
designing were separated
•  The architect was an educated and well read man,
rather than a craftsman
•  An over all tendency towards centralization and
professionalization
Tessin
•  Nicodemus Tessin the elder – state architect
•  Nicodemus Tessin the younger – head architect of
the rebuilding of the Stockholm castle after 1697.
The architects now has a high position of over all
responsibility
•  Tessin the elder was knighted and named count, and
in 1612 he became part of Karl XII’s government
•  Built a palace for himself and his family in 1690’s.
The Tessin Palace
1690’s, in close proximity
to the royal palace.
Inspiration from classical
roman architecture
Used the same artists who
were working on the royal
palace
A celebration of the arts. In the middle is Apollo, protector of the arts. Around is
demonstrations of the roots of the arts in antiquity. The painting contains portraits of
Bernini, Bramante, Michelangelo, Algardi, Rafale and Caracci. Also representations
of mechanics and engineering.
Swedish art in the
th
18 century
General outlines
•  Age of liberty
- A period of parliamentarianism and increasing civil rights.
Begun with Karl XII’s death in 1718 and ends with Gustav
III’s coup d’etat in 1772
•  Utility
- The idea of utility was a central for the age. Utility for the
state, not the individual. Drove the development of new
inventions and an increasing interest in scientific activity.
Founding of Scientific Academy in 1739.
•  The bourgeoisie
- A stronger identity forms around this class.
General Outlines
•  From general utility to the interest in the individual
- The interest in knowledge persisted, but rather than science
people became increasingly interested in the individual and
belles-lettres (poetry, fiction etc.). End of 18th century
•  Artistic movements
- Rococo
- Neoclassicism
•  Visual Rhetoric
- For court and royalty, artistic splendor was a visual rhetoric
- Buildings, interiors, portraits
- Changes with the new century. Towards the more natural and
simple.
General Outlines
•  Rooms for knowledge
- During the 18th century there was an increased over all
interest in collecting things
- Rooms were required to showcase the objects, that could be
anything from books, plants, artworks, archeological findings
etc.
- The building of observatories, academies and museums
The purpose of the arts
•  During the 18th century the major social purpose of
art was to project an image of a civilized and highly
developed Sweden.
•  A country that seemed rich and prosperous would
generally do better in international relations and
trading.
•  A wavering balance between endless consumption of
luxury goods, and an increasing doubt towards
luxury and personal indulgence
Rococo
•  The style following the baroque period
•  In architecture and craft it is largely based on swelling,
flowing and asymmetrical forms inspired by nature.
•  In painting the themes focused on the emotional and the
sensual
•  A preference for light pastel colors
•  The style was a way to project an image of wealth and
prosperity among royalty, nobility and the bourgeoisie
Classicism
•  The representative style of public buildings and the like
during the whole of the 18th century
•  Simpler forms, in allignment with classical ideals thought
to be universally beautiful.
•  The two styles often met and overlapped.
•  In Sweden, variations on classicism can be called KarlJohan style or “Gustaviansk”. These were not pure
classicism though, but moved back and forth between the
shapes of rococo and local adaptions of classical ideals.
Interior, Stockholm castle
•  Together with
Tessin the younger,
Carl Hårleman has
the biggest
influence on the
building of the
castle. The royal
quarters, built in
the 1750’s, are
obvious examples
of the rococo style
Kina slott (China castle)
•  Pavillions at Drottningholms castle
•  Designed by Carl Fredrik Adlercrantz in the 1760’s
•  A mix between rococo and orientalism
Alexander Roslin
Portraits, of both royalites, upper middleclass
and nobility. He was very much an
international artist, and was elected into the
french academy of arts. He was highly
sensitive to the trends in court and within the
nobility, which made him very popular and
successful
Gustav III with his brothers 1771
The lady with the veil 1768
An interest in the simple
and rural life
•  Genre paintings with motifs from the lower classes
(farmers, blacksmiths and the like)
•  Influenced the portraiture of the upper class
•  The female shepherd as a model of virtue and
simplicity. A common theme/style in rococo
portraiture of women.
Pehr Hillerström
A maid pours soap from a bowl, 1770’s
Two maid-servants at a brook
Carl Fredrik von Breda
• 
Hedvig Wegelin with her
daughters, 1795
• 
Portrayed as a loving mother,
based in antique ideals and
the idea of a more natural
women.
• 
He spent a lot of time in England, but was called back to be a Swedish
court painter. Both of his sons also became artists. Sepcialized in
portraits, and was like Hillerström a professor at the academy.
• 
Here the whish of portraying a simpler life had transferred to the
portraiture of the upper class, where it in the end of the 18th century
became less popular with superflous decorations and luxury
A word on churches
•  The intense church building activity had long since
ceased.
•  It was not suitable to incorporate the stylistic ideas
of the time in religious architecture. Most of the
time the medieval character was kept.
•  Classicism reached into the church and its décor. For
example Johan Tobias Sergel’s Resurrection altarpiece in the church of Adolf Fredrik in Stockholm
Resurrection
Johan Tobias Sergel,
Swedish art in
th
the 19 century
General outlines
•  A time of change for the art world
•  An increase in the number of artists, collectors,
exhibitions and visitors
•  A development of the education of the artist, the
forming of academies of different sorts
•  The forming of educational systems in opposition
with the academy. Konstnärsförbundet 1886
Johan Gustaf Köhler, academy interior 1841
Before you would get to paint live models you had to pass the class where you
based the drawings on statues, often replicas of classical scultures.
General Outlines
•  Increased possibilities of travels increased the
number of artist travelling south. Artists would go to
Rome, Paris, Düsseldorf, Munich as well as England
and Holland.
•  Interest in folk traditions, old myths and history
•  Romantic views on nature
•  Industrial production, also of the applied arts.
Bengt Nordenberg
Went to Düsseldorf and also settled there. Interested in folk traditions and
and ethnography. He from time to time went back to Sweden to portray this.
Image: Wedding in Värend, 1873
The story of E XIV, son of Gustav Vasa. He was the king of Sweden before he
was thrown over by his brother Johan and accused of insanity. He married a
daugther of a prison guard and they ruled together for a short time.
Compare this portait to the one we saw last time. There it was ordered by the
king, with the purpose of portraying him as a powerful monarch. Here we see
what the individual artist, who himelf chose to portray the king, told the story.
Georg von Rosen
Went to Münich, were historical painting and realism were favored. Started this
portrait of Erik XIV there in 1869.
Paris
•  The art capital of the 19th century
•  Traditional academies, well organized salons
(exhibitions) and a developed practice of art
criticism
•  In the 1880’s Paris became increasingly important
for young artists like Carl Larsson and Anders Zorn.
They found a new Paris, where new ideas and voices
made themselves known.
•  Places like Düsseldorf and Munich were traditional,
while Paris became representative for the avant garde
History and myth
•  In the early 19th century, there was an increasing interest in the
historical and the mythical.
•  In the arts, this made itself known in sculptures and paintings
based on historical events or motifs from old Norse mythology
•  A way of underlining the strength and lineage of the nation.
•  The interest for portraying the old Norse myths returned briefly
in the latter half of the 19th century
•  Also the interest in historical motifs continued at the end of the
century
Oden, 1830
Bengt Erland Fogelberg
Note the classical forms, like a
statue from ancient greece – but
with an adaption to
scandinavian history.
Johan Gustaf Sandberg – Gustav Vasa entering Stockholm
fresco 1834-35
Thors battle with
the giants
Mårten Eskil Winge, 1872
It can be seen as a portrayal of the rise of the morning fog, or as a visualization
of the myth that, when you see the morning or evening fog, it is actually fairies
dancing. Either way it is a very romantic way of painting a landscape. Some of
you might remember European romanticism with for example Caspar David
Freiedrich. There the landscape became a bearer of feeling, and something like
that could be said for this one as well.
August Malmström, The fairies play, 1866
Gustaf Cederström,
Bringing Home the Body of King Karl XII of Sweden, 1878
Genre paintings
•  Portraying every day life in simple environments,
either with realism or by idealizing
•  Together with landscapes, still lives and portraits it
was at first considered to be of lower standard than
historical painting
Per Wickenberg, French interior, litography
Inspiration from dutch genrepainters in the 17th century
Portraits
•  19th century – an increased amount of different
clients
•  Both official portraits and more intimate, personal
portraits
•  Self portraits from this era is often of a more
intimate and relaxed character.
•  Miniatures were popular during the first half of the
19th century. Disappeared with photography
Uno Trolli
Self portrait, 1848
Here we again see the simpler
portrayal, a more personal view.
Fredrik Westin, Group Portrait of the Bernadotte family, 1837
The representative royal portrait – images was still a powerful way
to project a message
Realism in Sweden
•  mid 19th century – an increased desire to portray the
world realistically
•  Inspiration from French painters such as Gustave
Courbet.
•  Affects both historical painting and landscape
painting.
Johan Fredrik Höckert, The Stockholm castle burns on the 7th of
december 1697,1862-66
Edvard Bergh, Summer landscape, 1873
A typical realistic landscape
Marcus Larsson – Waterfall in Småland (1856)
A more romantic landscape. This is painted earlier than the previous one,
which goes to show that the styles overlapped. Here the landscape is far more
dramatic and less calm.
Konstakademin and
Konstnärsförbundet
•  A break between the younger generation of artists and the older.
•  Those who had been to France and who had seen the modern en
plein air painting whished to break with the heavily traditional
academy
•  Ernst Josephson became the first leader of Konstnärsförbundet,
which formed in opposition with the Academy. It was formed in
1889
•  This later took the place of the academy and dominated the
Swedish art world for the rest of the century
•  Leading artists of Konstnärsförbundet: Anders Zorn, Bruno
Liljefors, Carl Larsson, Richard Berg and Karl Nordström.
Ernst Josephson
Portrait of journalist Godfrey Renholm
(1880) and Jeanette Rubenson (1883)
En plein air painting
•  Developed in Sweden along with its French
equivalent
•  First is said to be Alfred Wahlberg, who came to
Paris and there met the painting of Camille Corot
•  Also inspired by Camille Corot was Carl Fredrik
Hill, especially in his early works.
Carl Fredrik Hill, The tree and the river bend III, 1873
The artist colony of
Grez-sur-Loing
•  During the 19th century artist colonies were formed
all over Europe
•  Many Swedish artists came to Grez-sur-Loing, north
of Paris
•  Most of the painting outdoors, en plein air
•  Nils Kreuger, Richard Berg, Karl Nordström, Carl
Larsson
Carl Larsson,
Pumpkins 1882
Motif from Grez
Anders Zorn
Self portrait, 1889
The self portrait was a way for the
artist to manifest the increased
power that the famous artist had
gotten in society. A sign of success
was to get and order for ones self
portrait from the Uffizzies in Italy.
This was what Zorn sent them,
Zorn was over all very successful
in Europe with he fluent
brushwork and conemporary
motifs
Impression of
London
Anders Zorn 1890
The artist colony in Varberg
•  At the end of the 1880’s many artists started
returning to Sweden
•  Nils Kreuger and his wife settled in Varberg on the
west coast
•  Richard Bergh and Karl Nordström
•  The artists in Varberg have a common focus on the
local landscape
Karl Nordström
Entrenchment at Varberg, 1893
His work moved towards the more abstract, with heavier, simplified forms.
Nils Kreuger
Spring in Halland, 1894
Interested in the beauty of the landscape. Made the frame himself
and thereby made the whole thing into a decorative object. It’s
done with the technique drawing on oil paint. You might see a
certain likeness with pointilism and van Gogh
Animals
•  Considered its own genre in
the 19th century
•  Realistic portrayals
•  Humorous situations with
the animals acting like
humans
•  Right: Bruno Liljefors, Cat
with chaffinch, 1885
Creating an atmosphere
•  The idea of painting the atmosphere rather than the
actual landscape
•  Corresponding to Romanticism
•  It has often been called romantic nationalism
•  Colors became darker, and there was a preference for
symbolic interpretation and motifs in dusk.
Prince Eugen
•  The Cloud 1895
•  Son of Oskar II and queen
Sofia
•  Artistic education in Paris
Eugène Jansson
•  Often painting views of
Stockholm by night
•  Nocturne, 1900
•  High level of abstraction
Richard Bergh – Nordic summer evening 1899-1900
Part of the more figure-oriented romantic nationalism
Carl Larsson
•  A studio idyll. The artist's
wife with daughter Suzanne,
1885
•  He often painted the
surroundings of his home in
Sundborn, Dalarna
Breakfast under the big birch, 1896
Karin Larsson
•  An artist like her husband,
but like so many female
artists she has been
overshadowed by the famous
man
•  Painting, Sewing,
Embroidery
Folk traditions
example: wool embroidery
•  What we have talked about so far, and will continue to talk
about is what was going on in the upper classes. This kind of
art didn’t reach small provincial cities or small scale farms.
There you would find a different visual tradition.
•  Wool embroideries was most common in Skåne, the
southernmost landscape of Sweden. Most of the preserved
ones are from the 18th and early 19th century.
•  Colorful wollen threads were used on a background of black or
dark wadmal.
•  Pillows. Pads for sitting used in carriages.
•  Often made as celebrations for example for a wedding.
Fashionable interiors
•  Empire – a style imported from France, inspired by
roman antiquity and to some extent ancient Egypt.
Can be found in the red salon at Rosendal Castle.
Developed into the Karl Johan style, a simpler and lighter
version. Empire was the architecture of Napoleon. The
stylistic features were in many ways inspired by what he
had seen in other cultures- The shapes are slim and
straight, the furniture was often Mahogany
•  Swedish gothic revival – gothic shapes with pointed
arches and painted glass windows. One sought to create a
medieval impression.
The red salon, Rosendal,
Gothic room, Stockholm castle
A room intended for reception. The choice of the style can be
considered to have nationalistic and represenative background.
Restoration in the 19th century
•  During the 19th century many old churches were
restored
•  It was done according to the principles of french
architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. This meant that the
building would be restored to what it should have
looked like, in accordance to when it was built
•  During the 20th century many of the changes that
were made has been removed
Rooms for art
•  During the 19th century a number of museums opened.
•  The numbers of art dealers and galleries increased
•  Private collections became more and more common among the
upper middle class.
•  Art was made more available by new ways of reproducing
them. New printing techniques made sure that even if you
didn’t have the chance to see the actual paintings, you could see
the reproductions in magazines and the like.
•  The over all art world was widened to include more people,
professional art criticism was established
Rooms for art
•  All over Europe museums sprang up as a way to show off
cultural heritage and the power of the nation.
•  Art was believed to have an over all good influence on
people, which meant that an increased access to good art
would result in better people.
•  The museum was often located in the center of the city,
often with classical, palace like architecture.
•  The national museum of art was opened in Stockholm in
1866.
Friedrich Stüler 1866 National museum of art
Based on renaissance ideals of symmetry. At this time many
considered the italian renaissance to be the start of western
civilization, and therefor it was natural to base a building like this
upon its ideals.
Rooms for art
•  Regular exhibitions at the academy of arts
•  Different opposing forces to the academy arranged
their own exhibitions.
•  An increasingly commercial art market began to
form. Galleries and auctions
•  More and more collectors.
History of art
•  In the 19th century the first works in history of art
are published in Sweden
•  The works would be text on aesthetics or history, or
lexicons over artists