Swedish Art and Alternative Narratives of Nationalism
While following Eugen Weber’s argument for the nationalization of France in Peasants into Frenchmen, I was taken aback by the absence of emphasis on the cultural aspects driving the promotion of nationalization. I also took note of potential differences in the nationalization of other states, which he does not remotely explore.
For these reasons, I decided to showcase a few paintings from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century to demonstrate how the rise of Scandinavian nationalism, more specifically, Swedish nationalism contrasts with the traditional English-language understanding of both the historical origin of European nationalisms as well as the essence of nationalism itself.
These paintings, I hope, will encourage the consideration of alternative visions of nationalization and nationalism of this era.
Note: These paintings have been selected from Michelle Facos’ Nationalism and the Nordic Imagination: Swedish Art of the 1890s (1998) which I picked up at the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia. This very short, hastily-written essay was inspired by my study of this book as well as my recent exposure to contemporary understandings of nationhood and the continuing influence of 20th-century modernization theories.
This essay is intended to ignite thought and is not intended to serve as a definitive declaration of the exact workings of nationalism.
Regionalism, as portrayed in Weber’s study of France, is portrayed as a hindrance to the nationalization project. The near extinction of distinct regional dialects and traditions is the byproduct of the success of nationalism in France.
In some other countries, though, regionalism may have played a completely different role in the emergence of the modern nation-state.
Swedish artists like Anders Zorn almost exclusively painted scenes from his rural home region of Dalarna. Other Swedish artists devoted their entire careers to painting only a few local lakes and mountains. Zorn’s “Midsummer Dance” features villagers celebrating in distinctly regional folk clothing.
Why would famed artists known for their nationalistic beliefs devote so much effort to the production of art that in Weber’s model would dampen nationalization and modernization?
Carl Larsson’s illustration of members of the Swedish nation in his 1902 painting, “Outdoors the Summer Wind Blows” may give us a clue. Larson shows a national collective of distinct individuals, each with their own occupation, class, style, and age: all distinct but somehow part of a whole.
In Tara Zahra’s article, “Imagined Noncommunities: National Indifference as a Category of Analysis”, she briefly mentions Alon Confino’s analysis of the German concept of “Heimat” in Germany. According to this account, Heimat, literally German for “home”, is a concept that embraced regionalism in the German Empire in a way that collaborated with the larger nationalistic ideal of a unified Germany. I imagine something similar happened to some extent in Sweden and other European countries.
Another theme that can extracted from these sources is that of the Swedish nationalist ideal of the rural. Weber’s analysis of France concludes that French nationalization occurred because of Paris’s triumph over the rural. The French countryside was able to thrive and identify with the nation and the state because of its newfound connections to the metropole.
In the case of Swedish nationalist art, it seems that the nation was primarily a rural ideal. Sweden’s artists at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth painted countless landscapes of both agrarian land and untouched nature. The urban world, industrialization, and the growth of markets were not necessarily something nationalists were excited about in many countries. Swedish romantic nationalists took refuge in the countryside and forests likely because in their perspective, that was their vision of progress.
Weber almost used the terms “progress” and “development” interchangeably because of his view of progress as akin to what we call “modernization”. For Weber, France became thoroughly French because of the turn to mass consumerism, productivity, and urbanism. It’s worth pondering whether he conflates “modernization” and “nationalization” to an excessive degree.
Other countries may not have had the same vision for the future as France, even though one could contend that France’s vision ultimately triumphed in the competition of future perspectives.
Another theme I wanted to draw attention to with these paintings is the question of the production of culture. In Weber’s narrative, it was certainly the elites who pushed for the nationalization of the country. In Weber’s discussion of the formation of national culture, his focus was predominantly on political leaders and industrialists.
There is something to be said about the role of cultural elites in the production of the nation as well. Prince Eugen Napoleon Nicolaus, Duke of Närke, was a son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway, but more importantly, he was a famous nationalist landscape painter in this period. His work was nothing of gleaming gaudiness or cosmopolitanism, his subjects were simple and rooted in a particular place.
In Richard Bergh’s “Nordic Summer Evening”, we see a wealthy woman and man (modeled by Prince Eugen Nicolaus) standing on a porch with their eyes gazing at the nearby lake and their back to their house. The painting demonstrates the class element in the production of cultural and intellectual contributions of nationalism. Nationalist creatives themselves are telling us what they believe in and how they wish the world to be, either in their own words or in their art.
These artistic pieces enable us to perceive nationalization as more than just utilitarian, economic, or political concepts, but also as an aesthetic ideal. Moreover, these paintings, which lie in contrast to certain narratives of nationalism, facilitate an understanding of the varied imagination and integration of nationalist ideals across various European contexts. Nationalization, nationalism, and nationhood can take many forms. These features of nationalism discussed here do not only exist in Sweden. Other European societies have had similar aesthetic contributions to the era of nationalization. These aspects, however, are often overlooked.
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