Swedish art
The Reformation greatly disrupted Swedish artistic traditions, and left the existing body of painters and sculptors without large markets.
The requirements of the court and aristocracy were mainly for portraits, usually by imported artists, and it was not until the late 17th or 18th century that large numbers of Swedes were trained in contemporary styles.
The political success of the Vasa dynasty led to a considerable revival, expressed in the "Gustavan style", which again had some influence over neighbouring countries.
With the advent of Christianity came a new iconography, originally established in the churches, particularly in the form of baptismal fonts, rood crosses and devotional sculptures.
The Viklau Madonna, one of the most well-preserved wooden sculptures from the 12th century in Europe, was made in a workshop on Gotland which also produced rood crosses.
Visual narratives gained momentum in the churches in central Sweden in the late 15th century by masters such as Nils Håkansson and Albertus Pictor.
[6] It was made by the German-born painter and sculptor Bernt Notke, one of the most influential northern European artists of the late Middle Ages.
[8] The Vasa period of art consisted largely of portraits of princes, which were painted by foreign artists who were active in Sweden.
A number of castles, mansions and churches built, like the Royal Palace, meant that artists were called from abroad.
Erik Dahlbergh depicted the superpower era of Sweden in the great work Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna.
Alexander Roslin took inspiration from France and conducted many highly sensitive portraits of the era's finest personalities.
Pilo returned, however, to Sweden and then painted the great work Gustaf III's coronation in Stockholm Cathedral.
[6] Fogelberg, who was inspired by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, created powerful statues of Nordic deities and historical figures.
Hill became one of the foremost Swedish landscape painters as he had views that reflected his personality and often express despair and darkness.
Egron Lundberg developed watercolor art, as he traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, and painted his findings.
From an international perspective Swedish-produced art languished in obscurity until the late 19th century, when a number of Swedish artists gained attention outside of Sweden.
Zorn was counted as one of the foremost painters in Europe in the late 19th century and made many portraits of contemporary celebrities.
[9] Some famous work is Love's Nymph (1883), A Prime (1888), Midsummer Dance (1897), President Grover Cleveland (1899) and Bathing hills (1906).
Zorn's art is featured at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and the White House, and his works are among the most valued of all Swedish artists.
Larsson painted primarily in watercolor and his motifs were found in daily life: he often portrayed his own family and their home in Sundborn.
Taking stylistic inspiration from van Gogh, Jansson's paintings are often geometrically simple large forms, tranquil Stockholm motifs as well as powerful homoerotic male figures.
A significant development came in 1885 with the artists' group Opponenterna ('the Opponents'), who wanted to renew Swedish painting and gathered many of those names.
The rise of women artists, such as Eva Bonnier, and Hanna Pauli, who took inspiration from Rembrandt and others, also became prominent in this period.
More abstract forms were represented by Hilma af Klint, Nils von Dardel and Gösta Adrian Nilsson.
[6] The mid-1920s and a couple of decades following were both characterized by surrealism, the Halmstad Group, and of expressionism, which includes Gothenburg School realists Sven Erixson and Bror Hjorth, and a rigorous formalist, abstract minimalism of artists such as Olle Bærtling [sv].
