Insjölandskap med björkar och båt (Inland landscape with birch trees and boat)

The 19th century was a transformative period in both technological and cultural terms. In art, it was also very much the century of landscape painting. In earlier eras, landscape motifs had been low on the artistic hierarchy that had been the common norm in European art academies since the 1600s. Before the 19th century, landscapes were primarily used as atmospheric backgrounds for figure paintings and could only achieve the status of a full-fledged work of art with the help of a literary, historical or biblical theme.

The only significant exception was 17th-century Dutch painting, with its realistic depictions of the country’s own topography in works by now-celebrated artists such as Jacob van Ruisdael (c. 1629–1682, painter, draughtsman and etcher, generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achievement when Dutch painting became highly popular) and Allaert van Everdingen (1621–1675, Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker).

Well into the 19th century, landscape paintings thus primarily followed established 17th-century patterns, in which nature was viewed more through the eyes of the older masters than as it actually appeared. The fact that the greenery in these early 19th-century paintings, subdued by a dark palette, was sometimes more brown than green did not seem to bother anyone, as long as the primary purpose was to connect with established older ideals rather than to depict an objective reality with fresh eyes.

Towards the middle of the 19th century, however, the old hierarchy of motifs began to break down. Landscape subjects were increasingly in demand and began to be valued as independent works of art. This change, which accelerated after1850, ultimately had its roots in the social and demographic developments of the times. Across Europe, a growing proportion of the population were leaving the countryside, and their daily contact with nature, to move to cities that were expanding rapidly as a result of industry and trade. Despite this, the increased physical distance between people and nature was not matched on a mental level. On the contrary, it seems to have created a necessary distance with a new perspective among the, ever-growing, urban population, laying the foundation for a longing to return to nature as well as an idealisation of the original rural life. This phenomenon, in turn, contributed to the rising popularity and prestige of landscape painting. 

The new style of landscape painting had its big breakthrough in France around 1850, where significant contributions were made by artists such as Camille Corot (1796–1875, a pivotal figure in landscape painting, whose vast output simultaneously referenced the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipated the plein-air innovations of Realism and Impressionism). These new ideas eventually reached Sweden when Edvard Bergh (1828–1880) founded a course in landscape painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1857. In 1861, Bergh became a professor at the academy and gained even greater influence over the development of Swedish landscape painting.

Bergh was initially faithful to the dramatic and dark landscapes of the so-called Düsseldorf School. But towards the end of the 1860s, he developed a brighter and more realistic style of painting based on careful observations of nature, concentrating on landscapes from central Sweden. Most characteristic of this period, which established Bergh’s great popularity, are summer landscapes with birch forests, lakes and grazing cattle, such as Sommarlandskap / Summer Landscape (1873, oil on canvas, 60 x 90 cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm). These canvases are based on careful observations of nature, with realistic lighting effects and brighter colours, which were new at the time and stood in stark contrast to the gloomy brown tones of earlier paintings. This became an important intermediate step in the development of Swedish landscape painting towards plein air realism in the 1880s.

Anna Gardell-Ericson belonged to the first generation of Swedish artists who benefited from the new teachings on landscape painting. Her studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm (1871–1878) brought her in contact with the latest continental ideals. Having studied under landscape painter and professor Per Daniel Holm (1835-1903), she later went on to develop her own personal style, which would help her become an internationally recognised artist who mainly painted landscapes in watercolour, specialising in coastal scenes and landscapes with lakes or rivers.Insjölandskap med björkar och båt (Inland landscape with birch trees and boat) is a very good example of her artistic qualities, where her watercolours, inspired by French outdoor painting, have a romantic lustre with ethereal greenery and depth in the pictures. However, the composition is not merely a skilful rendering of an idyllic Swedish landscape. The motif, and its details, also bear witness to the 19th-century’s transition from an agricultural to an industrialised mercantilist society. On closer inspection, the boat mentioned in the title of the work appears to be steam-powered, and on the beach (to the right in the middle ground) is what appears to be a sawmill. Tangible examples of the very societal transformation that came to influence the conditions for the reorientation of landscape painting in the 19th century.

Signed (lower right): ‘Anna-Gardell-Ericson’.

Provenance

Bukowskis, Selected Classics Online - 19th & early 20th century paintings, 27 November 2021, lot 1359944.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired at the above sale).