DOI issue:
No. 197 (August, 1909)
DOI article:Bröchner, Georg: The exhibition of Swedish applied art at Stockholm
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20967#0235
The Exhibition of Swedish Applied Art at Stockholm
i VARENSTIQ FPU,VENUS DR-i
ATT Sf SIG 0r\ l NORDANSKi
harpA en.-A hona&ttf ti i/' -
• • USA.-OCH DA RAF 3LEF- EN VA
DCS OENt'A. .UilV, ViiiA-
HAUTE-LISSE TAPESTRY: “VENUS AND THE WATER-SPRITE” DESIGNED BY CARL LARSSON
EXECUTED BY “ HANDARBETET’s VANNER,” ‘ STOCKHOLM
The subject of this article is one instance
amongst many bearing out what I have just said.
It would seem rather a venturesome undertaking
to hold a large and costly exhibition solely in-
tended for Swedish applied art and art-industry;
but the result has, in the happiest manner, proved
the soundness of the idea, which, in the first
instance, emanated from Dr. E. G. Folcker, who,
as he himself modestly says, cast the small grain
of mustard seed which grew into the big tree.
The one man, however, to whom the exhibition
owes more than to any other, is the famous archi-
tect, Mr. Ferdinand Boberg. Not only has he
conceived and worked out in detail the whole of
the charming and original exhibition buildings—-
admirable in their plan as they are singularly
picturesque in their aspect—but to him is also due
the credit of having designed scores of exhibits—
furniture and hangings, metal-work and glass, in-
cluding some of the most striking and most
meritorious items shown. True, Mr. Boberg
laboured under favourable conditions: the site
simply perfect, in a lovely old park on the
brink of the waterway to Stockholm, the power
to do virtually what he pleased, and behind him
a host of helpful and responsive friends. Boberg’s
art is to be recognised in the bold contours of
several of the structures, in the restful expanses of
unbroken wall, in the quaint and charming court-
yards, and more especially in the decorative devices
and ornamental motifs in which his artistic person-
ality perhaps finds its happiest and most character-
istic expression.
So much for the buildings, an exquisite little
white city within the great setting of magnificent
old trees. Whilst colour is thus banished from
the exterior, it abounds within, more particularly,
as might be expected, in the textile sections,
which must be counted amongst the exhibition’s
greatest attractions, also on account of the fact
that they, to a great extent, are the outcome of
two distinct national movements, now, in a way,
running parallel, viz., an old craft of peasant
weaving, lace-making and needlework, and an en-
tirely modern departure of great artistic merit,
both, however, essentially Swedish and brought to
such high degree of perfection that they may safely
challenge comparison with all comers.
205
i VARENSTIQ FPU,VENUS DR-i
ATT Sf SIG 0r\ l NORDANSKi
harpA en.-A hona&ttf ti i/' -
• • USA.-OCH DA RAF 3LEF- EN VA
DCS OENt'A. .UilV, ViiiA-
HAUTE-LISSE TAPESTRY: “VENUS AND THE WATER-SPRITE” DESIGNED BY CARL LARSSON
EXECUTED BY “ HANDARBETET’s VANNER,” ‘ STOCKHOLM
The subject of this article is one instance
amongst many bearing out what I have just said.
It would seem rather a venturesome undertaking
to hold a large and costly exhibition solely in-
tended for Swedish applied art and art-industry;
but the result has, in the happiest manner, proved
the soundness of the idea, which, in the first
instance, emanated from Dr. E. G. Folcker, who,
as he himself modestly says, cast the small grain
of mustard seed which grew into the big tree.
The one man, however, to whom the exhibition
owes more than to any other, is the famous archi-
tect, Mr. Ferdinand Boberg. Not only has he
conceived and worked out in detail the whole of
the charming and original exhibition buildings—-
admirable in their plan as they are singularly
picturesque in their aspect—but to him is also due
the credit of having designed scores of exhibits—
furniture and hangings, metal-work and glass, in-
cluding some of the most striking and most
meritorious items shown. True, Mr. Boberg
laboured under favourable conditions: the site
simply perfect, in a lovely old park on the
brink of the waterway to Stockholm, the power
to do virtually what he pleased, and behind him
a host of helpful and responsive friends. Boberg’s
art is to be recognised in the bold contours of
several of the structures, in the restful expanses of
unbroken wall, in the quaint and charming court-
yards, and more especially in the decorative devices
and ornamental motifs in which his artistic person-
ality perhaps finds its happiest and most character-
istic expression.
So much for the buildings, an exquisite little
white city within the great setting of magnificent
old trees. Whilst colour is thus banished from
the exterior, it abounds within, more particularly,
as might be expected, in the textile sections,
which must be counted amongst the exhibition’s
greatest attractions, also on account of the fact
that they, to a great extent, are the outcome of
two distinct national movements, now, in a way,
running parallel, viz., an old craft of peasant
weaving, lace-making and needlework, and an en-
tirely modern departure of great artistic merit,
both, however, essentially Swedish and brought to
such high degree of perfection that they may safely
challenge comparison with all comers.
205