Art Nouveau or National Romanticism? The difference in Swedish cities

The difference between Art Nouveau and National Romanticism lies in their models and their feel. Art Nouveau (known in Sweden as jugend), roughly 1895–1910, is international, light and curving, with undulating plant lines, pale façades, wrought iron, tiles and coloured glass. National Romanticism, in Sweden roughly 1900–1920, is heavy and built in hand-made brick and hewn granite, with steep roofs, towers and motifs from the country's own history and nature. The two styles were built at the same time, often by the same architects, and in many buildings they merge into one another.

Facts

The same opponent, different goals

Both styles emerged as a reaction against historicism, the 19th-century use of borrowed styles. Architects wanted to move away from copies of Renaissance palaces and Gothic churches and create something genuine. But they answered the question of what was genuine in different ways.

Art Nouveau sought an entirely new style without historical models. It began in Brussels, where Victor Horta built the Hôtel Tassel in 1893–1894, with iron columns that twist like plant stems, and it spread quickly to Paris, Vienna, Glasgow and Barcelona. In Vienna it was called Secession, after the group of artists who built the Secession Building. The style was cosmopolitan and just as much at home in a metro entrance as in a villa. The names say something about its spread: the Swedish word jugend comes from the German magazine Jugend, founded in Munich in 1896, and the name Art Nouveau from the art dealer Siegfried Bing's shop, the Maison de l'Art Nouveau in Paris, which opened in 1895.

National Romanticism turned its gaze inward. In a Nordic region where Finland was part of the Russian Empire and Norway in union with Sweden, architecture became a way of expressing national identity. The models were medieval churches and castles, Gustav Vasa's castles and the log houses of peasant society. From the English Arts and Crafts movement came the idea that the material should be honest and the craftsmanship visible.

Art Nouveau in Stockholm: the Royal Dramatic Theatre

The clearest Swedish Art Nouveau building is the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) at Nybroplan, designed by Fredrik Lilljekvist and opened in 1908. The façade is of white marble with gilded details, the lines are soft and the inspiration is partly drawn from Vienna. Several of the leading artists of the day, among them Carl Larsson, worked on the decoration, so that the building became a total work of art in which everything hangs together.

Swedish Art Nouveau is mostly more restrained than the Belgian or French. It often appears in details on apartment buildings from the years around 1905: softly rounded windows and bay windows, rendered ornament in the form of leaves and flowers, wrought-iron railings with curling lines, and stairwells with tiles, coloured glass and patterned floors. The boundary with National Romanticism often runs through the middle of a single building. The Thiel Gallery by Ferdinand Boberg, with pale rendered walls and an onion-shaped dome, is counted as National Romanticism but has much of the lightness of Art Nouveau.

National Romanticism: Engelbrekt Church and City Hall

The Engelbrekt Church in Lärkstaden, designed by Lars Israel Wahlman and consecrated in 1914, is National Romanticism in its purest form. It rises from a rock and seems to grow out of the bedrock, with a granite base, walls of red brick and a heavy tower. Inside, one of the highest church vaults in the Nordic countries is carried by enormous arches. Nothing is light and nothing is curvy.

The masterpiece is Stockholm City Hall by Ragnar Östberg, built in 1911–1923 with nearly eight million hand-made bricks and a tower 106 metres high, crowned by three crowns. Östberg blended Venetian palaces, Vasa castles and medieval churches into something new. Its neighbour, the Stockholm Court House by Carl Westman, recalls Vadstena Castle, and in Gothenburg Westman built the Röhsska Museum in dark brick. The Högalid Church on Södermalm, with its two towers, is a late variant from 1923.

In Finland the style became even more important. Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen built the studio home Hvitträsk of natural stone and timber, and Saarinen's railway station in Helsinki, in granite, with four large lantern-bearing figures at the entrance, shows how National Romanticism was simplified on its way towards Modernism.

Five questions that decide it

Ask first about the material. Smooth render, tiles and wrought iron point to Art Nouveau; rough brick, hewn granite and tarred timber to National Romanticism. Then ask about the line. The lines of Art Nouveau undulate and curl and build up the whole form, while those of National Romanticism are straight, heavy and masonry-built.

Look at the windows. Art Nouveau likes large, softly rounded windows and bay windows, National Romanticism small windows with glazing bars set deep in large expanses of wall. Look at the ornament. Art Nouveau has vines, lilies, women's faces and swirling curls; National Romanticism has bears, owls, runes, fairy-tale figures, crowns and motifs from the Vasa period. Finally, look at the roof. Steep roofs, towers and tower caps like those on a castle are National Romanticism, whereas Art Nouveau buildings more often have gently curving gables.

The answers do not always point the same way, and that is in itself an answer: around 1905–1910 architects mixed freely. Read on in the guides to Art Nouveau in architecture and National Romanticism, or compare Art Nouveau with its successor in the design section's guide to Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The Swedish period is described under National Romanticism in Swedish history.

A quick way to tell them apart

Exercise

A church from 1914 in dark hand-made brick on a base of rough granite, with a steep roof and a heavy tower. Which style?