Geographies, Topographies, and Northern Light: Crafting a Nordic Identity at Skagen

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with Scandinavian landscape painting at the turn of the 20thcentury, and the ways that these images contributed to widespread nationalist ideology. Born out of a desire to identify and capture a collective national identity, a return-to-folk movement came into effect at the end of the 1870s, as Nordic artists left the cosmopolitan centers of Europe to return home and focus on the defining geographical and cultural characteristics of the North. Suddenly a core national identity was being forged in images relating to the northern landscape and the rustic folk peasant. At the artists' colony at Skagen in Denmark, a return-to-folk movement was taking place in full force. Skagen at the time was a small fishing village on the northern coast of Jutland and served as a haven for artists who sought a simplistic and primitive lifestyle. It was a place of full blown folk-primitivism, where people were seen as having an almost pre-rational contact with nature and tradition. Here, artists engaged with themes of simplicity, the pastoral, and unspoiled nature which were charged with larger moralistic interpretations. The painters at Skagen would fully embrace images of the unique Nordic landscape, and would make use of its associations with pastoral simplicity to promote an authentic image of Nordic identity. Building on the growing dialogue about nationalism, art and politics, this thesis explores the ways visual imagery from this era is used to define an ‘authentic' Nordic identity. Looking at this topic through the lens of Roland Barthes' theory of myth-making and culture, this thesis broadens the connection between Nordic visual art and identity.