This essay examines the debate that arose in connection to the sale of Carl Larsson’s monumental painting Midvinterblot in 1987. My main purpose is to examine which meanings the debaters ascribed Midvinterblot and in which way the debate influenced the paintings significance as cultural heritage. I will therefore argue that the debate initiated a renegotitation of the paintings meaning as cultural heritage. In the debate the debaters emphasized the National Museum’s responsibility over cultural heritage, Midvinterblots aestethic, the paintings economic value and its national implications. The controversies concerning the painting shows that its meaning as cultural heritage was not constituted by the painting itself but by the meanings which the debaters placed upon it. The debate also sheds light on that there may be a wide variety of opinions concerning what it is that constitutes as cultural heritage. The meanings the debaters ascribed Midvinterblot related, however, in a crucial way to each other. My examination of the debate also show how cultural heritage is created to fill a specific purpose, for example, to maintain cultural values, to attract tourists or as a resource in the formation of group identities.

This essay examines the debate that arose in connection to the sale of Carl Larsson’s monumental painting Midvinterblot in 1987. My main purpose is to examine which meanings the debaters ascribed Midvinterblot and in which way the debate influenced the paintings significance as cultural heritage. I will therefore argue that the debate initiated a renegotitation of the paintings meaning as cultural heritage. In the debate the debaters emphasized the National Museum’s responsibility over cultural heritage, Midvinterblots aestethic, the paintings economic value and its national implications. The controversies concerning the painting shows that its meaning as cultural heritage was not constituted by the painting itself but by the meanings which the debaters placed upon it. The debate also sheds light on that there may be a wide variety of opinions concerning what it is that constitutes as cultural heritage. The meanings the debaters ascribed Midvinterblot related, however, in a crucial way to each other. My examination of the debate also show how cultural heritage is created to fill a specific purpose, for example, to maintain cultural values, to attract tourists or as a resource in the formation of group identities. / Tintin Hodén

Uppsatsen är en undersökning av den svenska konstnären Carl Larssons väggmålningar på läroverken i Sverige under 1890-1903. Undersökningens material består av Carl Larssons tre väggmålningar Svenska kvinnan genom seklen på Nya elementarläroverket för flickor i Göteborg, Skolungdomens korum på Norra latinläroverket för gossar i Stockholm och Ute blåser sommarvind på Göteborgs latinläroverk för pojkar. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur konstnären gestaltar kvinnor, flickor och pojkar och uttrycker sitt barnperspektiv med anknytning till genus- och identitetsperspektiv, där en viktig punkt är att undersöka konstnärens förändring av sitt barnperspektiv genom tiden. Barnperspektiv, genus, identitet och semiotik är mina teorier och metoder.

This thesis investigates representations of masculinities and the father figure in the Swedish painter Carl Larsson’s (1864-1919) self-portraits from 1895. The paintings are analysed through the concepts authority, a term closely connected to the father figure, and idyll, a term often used to describe Larsson’s art. Sara Ahmed’s theory to see beyond what is taken for granted, in Queer Phenomenology, is theoretical starting point for the thesis. The analytical method is adopted from Tamar Garb’s Bodies of Modernity. Figures and Flesh in Fin-de-Siécle France. The conclusion is that the masculinities in Larssons’s father figure are coherent with the paterfamilias in the late 1900s, consisting of the provider, the authority figure, and the husband/lover. Furthermore, that the idyll is constructed by those with the authority to construct it, and that the authority thereby is defined by the idyll it constructs. / Uppsatsen undersöker maskuliniteter genom bildanalyser av två självporträtt av Carl Larsson där han framställer sig som både far och konstnär. Bilderna har analyserats med hjälp av begreppen auktoritet, som traditionellt har varit sammankopplat med fadern, och idyll, som har blivit i det närmaste synonymt med Larssons konst. Sara Ahmeds queera fenomenologi har använts som teoretisk utgångspunkt för att undersöka det som kan ses som det förgivettaga, här formulerat som idyllen. Bildanalyserna har gjorts med utgångspunkt i Tamar Garbs metod för bildanalys i Bodies of Modernity. Figures and Flesh in Fin-de-Siécle France. Undersökningen visar att det i Larssons fadersgestalt går att utläsa samtliga aspekter av 1800-talets paterfamiliaskonstruktion, såsom den formuleras av Joseph A Kestner; familjeförsörjaren, auktoritetsfiguren och maken/älskaren. Undersökningen visar också att den idyllen konstrueras av den som har auktoritet att göra det och att auktoriteten därmed definieras av den idyll den konstruerar. Carl Larssons idyllkonstruktion är därigenom resultatet av ett utövande av den auktoritet han har i egenskap av man, make, far och konstnär.

This master thesis explores the image of Japan in the artistic creations during Japonism in Sweden. Japan and Sweden first started trading in 1868 and knowledge about Japan in Sweden were limited at best. With the emergence of the Western art movement known as Japonism, ranging from 1858 to 1914, fascination for the unknown country grew in Europe. As the art movement Japonism became the first era of interest of Japan in Sweden, the portrayal and subsequent image of the country that emerged during this time is of interest to examine, as to better understand how Japan was imagined by Sweden. Herein, this study aims to analyse the portrayal of Japan in artworks from Swedish artists during Japonism in order to examine what components and ideas composed the image of Japan conveyed during Japonism. A collection of visual artworks depicting Japanese elements, based on Japonism associated artists and creators, have been collected using digital archives and databases to assess what is depicted and how by the creators. Japanese elements, such as objects, clothes, people and landscapes were subsequently analysed using a visual analysis based on researcher Jules David Prown’s three-step method of analysing historical objects. Using the concept of the image, as defined by scholar Torsten Burgman, as the basis of the analysis the depictions of Japanese elements are examined and categorised into several larger and smaller components. The examination is conducted within a framework of ethnocentrism and orientalism to contextualise the image of Japan with the thought structures in 19th century Sweden, as the creators portrayed Japan from both a Swedish and Western Eurocentric colonial perspective. As the source material is artistic depictions, an additional aesthetic framework was applied to contextualise the image of Japan with its artistic medium. Four major image components were found in the material: Japan presented as a commodity; Japanese things as something feminine; Japan as something faraway and exotic, contrasting the West; and Japan as a reference or commentary on the ongoing Japonism movement. The image of Japan found in these depictions of Swedish Japonism was a Eurocentric and ethnocentric understanding of the country. Japan and Japanese things, were imagined as something exotic and beautiful, and usually conveyed as exotic commercial flair for Western women.