Barn och stentroll 

John Bauer made this watercolor artwork of children and stone trolls in Sweden, but the exact date remains unconfirmed. The work reflects the fascination with folklore and the natural world, particularly in early 20th-century Scandinavian culture. We see children dwarfed by a massive troll, a figure drawn from Swedish folklore. The troll is part of the landscape as though he’s a natural formation, a being of nature. Bauer was commissioned to illustrate Swedish Folk Tales, which were widely distributed as children’s books throughout Swedish schools and homes. The illustrations would have shaped a generation’s vision of their natural environment, a vision rooted in myth. As historians, we can delve into the folk tales and art of this period to explore how cultural values and national identity were constructed and transmitted. Through these visual texts, children were taught to imagine and conceptualize their environment.