Art to see in Stockholm: the Nationalmuseum, Moderna Museet and the churches

The most important art to see in Stockholm is at the Nationalmuseum, with Swedish and European art from the Middle Ages to the turn of the 20th century, and at Moderna Museet, with the art of the 20th century. Add Storkyrkan with St George and the Dragon and the Sun Dog Painting, Siri Derkert's carvings in the metro at Östermalmstorg and Albertus Pictor's paintings in Täby Church, and you have seen most of what the app covers.

Facts

The Nationalmuseum: from Rembrandt to Carl Larsson

The Nationalmuseum on Blasieholmen is Sweden's largest art museum. The building was designed by the German architect Friedrich August Stüler and opened in 1866, and after a long renovation it reopened in 2018; read about the building in the architecture section under the Nationalmuseum. The collection runs from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, with painting, sculpture, drawings and decorative arts.

Among the Swedish works are Alexander Roslin's The Lady with the Veil of 1768, the shimmering portrait of Rococo, and Johan Tobias Sergel's Faun, the marble of the Gustavian period. From the 19th century there are August Malmström's Dancing Fairies, Gustaf Cederström's The Funeral Procession of Charles XII and Ernst Josephson's The Strömkarl, and from the turn of the century Anders Zorn's Midsummer Dance, Bruno Liljefors's Fox Family, Hanna Pauli's Breakfast Time and Carl Larsson's Breakfast under the Big Birch.

The museum also has a large collection of European art. The best-known single painting is Rembrandt's The Oath of the Batavians under Claudius Civilis, a large fragment of a picture he painted for Amsterdam Town Hall. Set aside a whole day if you can: the collection is large and arranged chronologically, so that you can walk through art history floor by floor.

Moderna Museet: the 20th century and the present

Moderna Museet on Skeppsholmen opened in 1958 and received its present building, designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, in 1998; see Moderna Museet in the architecture section. In the 1960s the museum became known for its bold exhibitions and built up one of Europe's most important collections of modern art.

Sigrid Hjertén is central to Swedish modernism, and her Studio Interior of 1916 is here: an Expressionist picture in strong colours of the artist's home and studio, with herself, her husband Isaac Grünewald and a third figure. The museum also has works by Picasso, Duchamp, Dalí and many others that the app covers; they are protected by copyright and are therefore not shown as images here, but the works can be seen on site. Read about the period in the guide to Expressionism.

The churches: St George and the Sun Dog Painting

In Storkyrkan in Gamla stan stands St George and the Dragon, an enormous sculptural group in oak, with real elk antlers in the dragon's spikes. It was carved by Bernt Notke of Lübeck and consecrated in 1489, commissioned by the Regent Sten Sture the Elder after the Battle of Brunkeberg in 1471. The knight who rescues the princess has been interpreted as Sten Sture rescuing the realm. Read about how to interpret images of saints in the guide to iconography and attributes.

In the same church hangs the Sun Dog Painting, the oldest image of Stockholm. It shows a remarkable light phenomenon, several suns and rings in the sky, seen over the city in April 1535. The original has been lost; what hangs in the church is a copy from 1636. The picture is both an early portrait of a city and an account of a sign from the heavens in the troubled years of the Reformation.

The metro and Täby Church

The Stockholm metro is sometimes called the world's longest art exhibition, and many stations have artistic decoration. At Östermalmstorg Siri Derkert carved pictures and texts directly into the concrete walls in 1965: Carvings in Concrete deals with women's rights, peace and the environment, and is one of the best-known works of Swedish public art.

A little north of the city lies Täby Church, where Albertus Pictor painted the vaults around 1480. The image of a knight playing chess with Death, Death Playing Chess, is known far beyond Sweden; Ingmar Bergman has said that it inspired him to make the film The Seventh Seal.

Outdoor art and the Middle Ages

Stockholm also has a great deal of art outdoors. Outside the Concert Hall at Hötorget stands Carl Milles's Orpheus Fountain of 1936, with the singer Orpheus surrounded by listening figures. Milles's sculptures can also be found at his former home, Millesgården on Lidingö, where he collected both his own works and classical finds.

Anyone who wants to see more medieval art than Storkyrkan's St George should go to the Swedish History Museum in Östermalm. It has a large collection of church art from Swedish churches: crucifixes, Madonnas, altarpieces and baptismal fonts, which show the same pictorial world as Albertus Pictor's vault paintings. Read about the parts of an altarpiece in the guide to iconography and attributes and about the church interior in the architecture section's guide to the parts of a church.

More to see and how to plan

Stockholm also has art in the buildings themselves. City Hall, inaugurated in 1923, has the Golden Hall with mosaics by Einar Forseth. The Thiel Gallery on Djurgården shows the financier Ernest Thiel's collection of Nordic art around the turn of the 20th century, with Munch among others. On Lidingö lies Millesgården with the sculptures of Carl Milles, and on Djurgården Prince Eugen's Waldemarsudde, the home of the artist prince; see Prince Eugen.

On the app's map the museums and works are marked, so that you can plan a walk: the Nationalmuseum, Skeppsholmen and Gamla stan lie within a few hundred metres of each other. The architecture section has its own map of the city's buildings. The history of Swedish art, from the Middle Ages to the present, is under Swedish art, and the guide Art to see in Paris does the same for the Louvre and the Orsay.

Don't miss

Exercise

Where in Stockholm is the sculptural group St George and the Dragon?