En spegling av tiden : Uttryck för nationalism i svensk och dansk målarkonst ca 1850 till 1865

Sammanfattning: The aim of my master’s thesis is to study how of nationalism was expressed in Swedish and Danish paintings c. 1850 to 1865. In both Sweden and Denmark there were strong feelings of nationalism in the 19th century. The development towards a modern nation state meant that people began to feel like citizens of a nation rather than subjects to a king. In the words of the Irish-American anthropologist and political scientist Benedict Anderson they had the feeling of being in an imagined community.  I examine how nationalism was expressed, what factors influenced the portrayal of national feelings and the purpose of choices of subject. The final question is if there are differences between the countries and, if any, possible reasons. The time period I have chosen is the time between the two Slesvig wars in Denmark, which is now often seen as the latter part of the Danish Golden Age. It is also the period when many Swedish painters chose to travel to Düsseldorf to study painting and the Düsseldorf school became especially important in genre and landscape painting, often with nationalistic subjects. My study is divided into four themes, Mythology, Monarchs, People and Nature, covering different aspects of life and also of different categories of painting. For each theme I examine one painting by a Swedish artist and one by a Danish artist using Panofsky’s iconological method.  I include other paintings and texts for reference.  The expression of nationalism shows similarities between the countries, such as use of old Norse mythology and genre paintings of rural people in traditional costumes. Landscape paintings reflected the geographical differences between the countries. Current events, in particular the Slesvig wars for Denmark, also left their mark on nationalism and found their way into art.