FührungMidsummer! Atmospheric Landscapes of the North 1880–1920

In Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, Midsummer is observed through large, festive celebrations. The clear light and long days around the summer solstice and the so-called white nights immerse their landscapes in an entirely unique atmosphere. In the period between 1880 and 1920 – a time in which modern Scandinavian and Finnish art were flourishing – artists developed a new visual idiom which gives expression to the characteristics and temperaments of their homelands. Realism, naturalism, impressionism and symbolism were seen as new developments. Open-air painting demanded that artists see their own time in a manner that was based on reality but nonetheless subjective.