Sekelskiftets molnkonst : En ekokritisk studie av Charlotte Wahlströms molnskildringar

Sammanfattning: This essay examines cloud depictions made by the Swedish artist Charlotte Wahlström (1849–1924) during the turn of the twentieth century. The purpose of the essay is to increase the knowledge of the works of a relatively unexplored female artist and discuss how an ecocritical perspective can bring new light to landscape painting during this period of time. The material consists of a selection of six landscape paintings with cloud motifs displayed at the exhibition Kvinnliga pionjärer – Visionära landskap at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde in Stockholm. The analysis is based on formal aspects from Allan Ellenius’ scheme for image analysis combined with an ecocritical theoretical approach, which puts the cloud paintings in an Anthropocentric context. By painting, Wahlström positions herself to the clouds, which reflects the relation between human and nature. Wahlström’s cloud paintings tend to be seen as subjective mood paintings, on which human feelings are reflected, regardless of the stylistic depiction of the clouds. The result shows that an ecocritical focus enables an image analysis that puts the clouds and the nature in focus, free from human’s projection of her own feelings. Ecocriticism cannot, however, see beyond the fact that a painting is an artefact made by and regarded by humans, and in turn always subjective.