The first half of the 19th century is considered the Golden Age of Danish art. It was a period with economic problems for the country and for many people. As a result new values and ideals became important with emphasis on family and work. The middle classes gained more influence and also became more interested in art. The period was not called a golden age until the end of the century, when the artistic value of the works was more recognized. Nowadays Golden Age portraits and landscape paintings are especially admired.  In this essay I have investigated three family portraits painted 1829-1830 in order to find out who the sitters were, how they were depicted and in what settings. In my view the portraits tell stories of the sitters and the way families adhered to the ideals of family life and diligence. There was a division between male and female spheres and also between private and public parts of family life. As a result he family portraits do not only show what the persons and their homes looked like, the contents of the painting becomes a story presenting them to viewers, although, perhaps, in an idealized version of reality.

The aim of my master’s thesis is to study how of nationalism was expressed in Swedish and Danish paintings c. 1850 to 1865. In both Sweden and Denmark there were strong feelings of nationalism in the 19th century. The development towards a modern nation state meant that people began to feel like citizens of a nation rather than subjects to a king. In the words of the Irish-American anthropologist and political scientist Benedict Anderson they had the feeling of being in an imagined community.  I examine how nationalism was expressed, what factors influenced the portrayal of national feelings and the purpose of choices of subject. The final question is if there are differences between the countries and, if any, possible reasons. The time period I have chosen is the time between the two Slesvig wars in Denmark, which is now often seen as the latter part of the Danish Golden Age. It is also the period when many Swedish painters chose to travel to Düsseldorf to study painting and the Düsseldorf school became especially important in genre and landscape painting, often with nationalistic subjects. My study is divided into four themes, Mythology, Monarchs, People and Nature, covering different aspects of life and also of different categories of painting. For each theme I examine one painting by a Swedish artist and one by a Danish artist using Panofsky’s iconological method.  I include other paintings and texts for reference.  The expression of nationalism shows similarities between the countries, such as use of old Norse mythology and genre paintings of rural people in traditional costumes. Landscape paintings reflected the geographical differences between the countries. Current events, in particular the Slesvig wars for Denmark, also left their mark on nationalism and found their way into art.