Studieblad med svenske bondepiger og koner 1851

Wilhelm Marstrand made this study of Swedish peasant women with pen and brown ink. Marstrand was Danish, and his many images of everyday life are an important record of Scandinavian life in the mid-19th century. But these images are also inflected by then-current beliefs about the nature of the folk. The artist’s careful attention to costume, posture, and activity—reading!—suggests that this study was motivated by the artist's desire to accurately record the particulars of regional folk culture. But it also participates in a vogue for images of rural life that promoted a sense of national identity rooted in the virtues of the common person. Where does documentation end and idealization begin? As art historians, we can explore how these sketches were used later by the artist. We can also research the era’s conceptions of the peasantry through popular culture.