Heimdall Returns Brísingamen to Freyja

Carl-Johan OlssonCurator, Paintings and Sculpture

Art Bulletin of

NationalmuseumStockholm

Volume OM

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm,is published with generous support from theFriends of the Nationalmuseum.

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Items in the Acquisitions section are listedalphabetically by artists’ names, except in the caseof applied arts items, which are listed in order oftheir inventory numbers. Measurements are incentimetres – Height H, Breadth B, Depth D,Length L, Width W, and Diameter Diam.– except for those of drawings and prints, whichare given in millimetres.

Cover IllustrationAlexander Roslin (NTNUÓNTVP), The Artist and hisWife Marie Suzanne Giroust Portraying HenrikWilhelm Peill, NTST. Oil on canvas, NPN ñ VUKR cm.Donated by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum,Sophia Giesecke Fund, Axel Hirsch Fundand Mr Stefan Persson and Mrs Denise Persson.Nationalmuseum, åã TNQNK

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Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum is publishedannually and contains articles on the historyand theory of art relating to the collections ofthe Nationalmuseum.

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få íÜÉ ëÉ~êÅÜ for a national art, or anart that could form a key part of a nationalidentity, Norse mythology became an im-portant source of subject matter. Using sto-ries from the Edda of Snorri Sturluson andother heroic tales, Scandinavian artists wereable to stake out a pictorial world designedto reinforce a historical self-image of theirown, more independent in relation tosouthern Europe. A significant factor be-hind this endeavour was the founding ofthe Gothic Society (Götiska förbundet) inNUNN. Later, in NUQS, the Artists’ Guild(Konstnärsgillet) was formed, with a partic-ular concern to foster a patriotic outlook inSwedish visual art and literature. That wasalso the year when the Royal Swedish Aca-demy of Fine Arts first chose an ancientNorse theme as the subject for its annualcompetition. Previously, there had been lit-tle enthusiasm for this type of history paint-ing, but now it acquired a kind of officialstatus.1 As an entry in this first competitionwith a Norse theme, Nils Andersson’s paint-ing Heimdall Returns Brísingamen to Freyja(Fig. N) is of particular interest to theNationalmuseum. It can be seen as usher-

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Heimdall Returns Brísingamen to Freyja

Carl-Johan OlssonCurator, Paintings and Sculpture

Fig. N Nils Andersson (NUNTÓNUSR),Heimdall Returns Brísingamen to Freyja, NUQS.

Oil on canvas, UQ ñ ST cm.Purchase: Hedda and N. D. Qvist Fund.

Nationalmuseum, åã TNPUK

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP

ing in the development, over more thanthirty years, of a genre that would assume astrong position both in the academic worldand among a broader public.

Nils Andersson (NUNTÓNUSR) camefrom a poor background and initiallyworked for several years as a decorativepainter, before being admitted to the Aca-demy of Fine Arts in Stockholm in NUQM, atthe age of OP. He paid his way as a studentby doing genre paintings, but to hold hisown at the Academy he was forced to try hishand at history painting in the annual com-petitions. The painting Heimdall ReturnsBrísingamen to Freyja, now acquired by theNationalmuseum, was one of his submis-sions. The NUQS competition attracted en-tries from five painters and one sculptor. Ofthese artists, Nils Andersson, Nils Blommér(NUNSÓNURP) and Carl Staaff (NUNSÓNUUM)won cash prizes. There is no record of theidentities of the other three.2

According to the myth of the Brísinga-men necklace, it was made by four dwarves.

Malmö Art Museum (Fig. O). It has much incommon with Nils Andersson’s painting, asregards both composition and accessories.Blommér’s representation, though, strikesus as decidedly flat, in the sense of a relief-like French Neoclassicism. Andersson onthe other hand, by rotating his figuressomewhat and giving them a freer body lan-guage, imparts a different dynamic to thescene and greater expressiveness to its pro-tagonists.

History painting was not something NilsAndersson would continue to pursue, how-ever. Instead, he came to specialise in genresubjects. As a consequence, he made small-er waves than the history painters of his day,and would never experience a major break-through or become one of the leadinglights of the Swedish art scene. But he wasable to make a living from his art for therest of his life, and from NURU to NUSQ heheld a professorship at the Academy ofFine Arts.

Heimdall Returns Brísingamen to Freyja rep-resents a genre which, for a long time, hasnot attracted a great deal of interest. In fu-ture, the Nationalmuseum intends to haveon display more examples of NVth-centuryhistory painting, which was once an impor-tant strand of Swedish art. In OMNO, theMuseum acquired a series of paintings byAugust Malmström which formed the basisfor illustrations to Esaias Tegnér’s Frithiof’sSaga, and which were the subject of anarticle by Professor Tomas Björk in the lastissue of the Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum,Stockholm.3

Notes:NK Karl Johanstidens konst, Signums Svenskakonsthistoria, Lund NVVVI p. NTQ.OK I am grateful to Eva-Lena Bengtsson, curatorat the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts,for information on the entrants in the NUQS

competition.PK Tomas Björk, “August Malmström andEsaias Tegnér’s Frithiof’s Saga”, in Art Bulletinof Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Volume NVI OMNOIStockholm OMNP, pp. OPÓPM.

When Freyja, goddess of fertility, saw it, shewas unable to resist its beauty. She offeredsilver and gold in exchange for the neck-lace, but the dwarves refused to part with itunless she spent a night with each of them– which she agreed to do. Norse mythologyincludes several stories about Freyja andBrísingamen. The newly acquired paintingrepresents the moment at which Odin’sson Heimdall restores the necklace toFreyja, after it has been stolen from her byLoki. In the work of the Icelandic writerSnorri Sturluson, we can read how Heim-dall sees Loki stealing it, follows him andfights with him to recover it.

How, then, was an ancient Norse sub-ject represented in NUQS, by an artist whohad yet to complete his training and whohad spent no time abroad? Andersson’sversion is of interest, not least, because itshows how, in their endeavour to create anational art, the artists of this period werestill feeling their way towards a visual lan-guage of their own. The painting is asmuch French Classicism as Norse mytholo-gy. Freyja and Heimdall are classical beau-ties, with a statuesque perfection of formand faces that betray only carefully con-trolled emotions. Later in the NVth centu-ry, Norse themes in painting become dark-er, more powerful and psychologicallymore penetrating, not unlike modern-daycinema.

A comparison of the different paintingsentered for the same competition tells us agood deal about how the individual artiststackled the subject in question. Like a the-atre or film director, each of them, as theirwork progressed, weighed up different pos-sibilities in terms of pose, gesture and facialexpression. One question to consider washow the main figures were to be placed inthe picture space and in relation to eachother. Another was the use of props andother figures. The competition entries canalso be viewed in the light of what was atstake for these young artists. An ambitious,highly detailed manner of painting was away of showing off one’s skill. Nils Blom-mér’s version is now in the collection of the

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Fig. O Nils Blommér (NUNSÓNURP), HeimdallReturns Brísingamen to Freyja, NUQS. Oil on canvas,UV ñ SSKR cm. Malmö Art Museum.

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP