Carl Johan Fahlcrantz
Founder of Swedish Romantic landscape painting.
Carl Johan Fahlcrantz painted Swedish landscapes with oaks, water and evening light. He made nature a patriotic symbol.
Carl Johan Fahlcrantz was born in 1774 in Stora Tuna in Dalarna and grew up in a clergyman's family. His brother Christian Erik Fahlcrantz became known as a writer and bishop. Carl Johan came to Stockholm as a young man and studied at the school of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He was influenced by Elias Martin and by older landscape painters such as the Frenchman Claude Lorrain and the Dutch masters.
Fahlcrantz specialised early in landscape and advanced quickly. He became a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and later a professor there. King Karl XIV Johan admired his art and bought many of his paintings, and he became one of the most sought-after landscape painters in Sweden at the time.
His pictures show Swedish nature in an idealised, Romantic form. Typical subjects are huge oaks, still lakes, rapids, castles and ruins in a soft, golden evening light. He also painted views from various parts of the country. The landscapes are carefully composed, with a dark foreground, a light middle ground and a misty distance. In his hands nature took on a patriotic tone, at a time when Sweden had lost Finland and was searching for a new national identity.
Fahlcrantz died in Stockholm in 1861. He is often called the founder of Swedish Romantic landscape painting. In the later 19th century his style was considered old-fashioned by the younger painters, who were drawn to Düsseldorf and Paris. His works are in the Nationalmuseum and the royal palaces.