Skystudie 1896

This is an undated watercolor "Skystudie" by the Danish artist Niels Larsen Stevns. Larsen Stevns was interested in rendering atmospheric perspective through the use of light and color, a quality he shared with many other Scandinavian painters of his time. Denmark, geographically and culturally, was peripheral to the dominant artistic institutions of Europe, particularly Paris, and artists sought to develop styles that felt authentic to their experience. Many late 19th and early 20th century Scandinavian artists turned away from depicting the human figure and towards studies of landscape, finding in it a reflection of the spiritual and cultural values they felt were specific to their region. To understand why an artist such as Larsen Stevns chose to represent the world in this way, we can look at the rise of nationalism and the changing role of the artist in a rapidly modernizing society. Art history, at its best, connects the image with its cultural context.