The Düsseldorf years and academicism

History painting, popular life and dramatic landscapes – in the spirit of Düsseldorf and the academy.

Around the middle of the 19th century many Swedish artists studied in Düsseldorf, where painters produced detailed, narrative pictures of popular life and dramatic landscapes. Marcus Larson painted rapids and burning ships, and Amalia Lindegren genre scenes of peasant life.

History painting was considered the highest form of art. Gustaf Cederström painted The Funeral Procession of Charles XII and Georg von Rosen Eric XIV, while Mårten Eskil Winge depicted the battles of the Norse gods.

In 1866 the Nationalmuseum opened in Stockholm, one of Europe’s first public art museums. The Royal Academy of Fine Arts held great power over training and exhibitions – a power that would soon be challenged.