"Festive Customs" and "Everyday Beauty". The Agenda and Self-Conception of the Nordic Life Reform Movement

: In the second half of the 19th century a wave of modernisation, industrialisation and 9 urbanisation swept the Nordic countries, catapulting what had until then been lagging and primarily 10 rural countries into modernity. These major upheavals, however, also plunged the Nordic countries 11 into a profound social and cultural crisis resulting from their consciousness of their own 12 backwardness vis-a-vis the countries on the European continent, as well as the recognition that a 13 nostalgic nationalism recalling a mythical past had become obsolete in the industrial age. In response 14 to this crisis, a life reform movement emerged that was based on Arts and Crafts movements as 15 well as various artistic and literary reform movements and—equally absorbing rural traditions and 16 progressive social ideas—tried to establish a new national everyday culture. In this article, the two 17 key terms coined by Ellen Key, “Festive Customs” (‘festvanor’) and “Everyday Beauty” (‘vardags-18 skönhet’)—the programmatic core of the Nordic life reform movement—are analysed and 19 illustrated in various typical manifestations. It also examines to what extent the Nordic life reform 20 movement with these two key concepts as its core agenda found expression in arts and crafts, in 21 painting as well as in the architecture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and 22 contributed to the progress of social and cultural renewal.


Introduction
In the second half of the 19th century a wave of modernisation, industrialisation and urbanisation swept the Nordic countries, catapulting what had until then been lagging and primarily rural countries on the margins of Europe into modernity.It set off various social upheavals similar to those which had occurred some decades before, first in England, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, and later on the European continent as well.One aspect of this was a growing openness towards other countries.Close ties, prompted by felt affinities, developed with the German Empire, for example, which was adopted as a model to be followed in the spheres of technology, science and art.At the same time, numerous Nordic artists and writers were drawn to the European continent, especially to France and Germany, where some were more successful than in their home countries (Henningsen et al. 1997).These major upheavals, however, also plunged the Nordic countries into a profound social and cultural crisis resulting from their consciousness of their own backwardness vis-a-vis the countries on the European continent, as well as the recognition that a nostalgic nationalism recalling a mythical past had become obsolete in the industrial age and could no longer suffice as the foundation of a cultural identity (Häfner 1998, pp. 5-9).
In response to this crisis a life-reformist movement of renewal arose, drawing strength from the Arts and Crafts Movement as well as a variety of artistic and literary reform movements.Building equally on folk traditions and progressive social ideas it attempted to establish a new national culture in everyday life.At the centre of this movement are the two concepts of "Festvanor" ('Festive Customs') and "Vardagsskönhet" ('Everyday Beauty') formulated by the Swedish author and educational reformer Ellen Key (1849Key ( -1926)).Her essays bearing these titles (Key 1891, Key 1896) expressed a longing for a renewed festive ritualising and aesthetic enrichment of everyday life.This article presents the two key terms "Festive Customs" and "Everyday Beauty" as comprising the basic agenda for the Nordic life reform movement and describes some of their typical manifestations such as the artists' celebration or festive rituals.In so doing it also examines the question of to what extent the Nordic life reform movement with these two key concepts as its core agenda found expression in arts and crafts, in painting as well as in the architecture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and contributed to the progress of social and cultural renewal.

Aesthetic lifestyle reformer and patriot
Born 1849 on the southern Swedish estate Sundholm to a family of landed gentry which later moved to Stockholm, in 1875 Ellen Key began teaching in Stockholm and in 1883 to lecture at the Swedish Workers' Institute.In these years she progressed through lectures, publications, and a wide range of personal contacts to become one of the leading intellectuals of the country.In her works Ellen Key promoted equally artistic, literary and political goals.Her contacts included representatives of new artistic and literary currents such as the group of painters known as "Opponenterna" ('The Opponents') founded in 1885, which included among others Carl Larsson (1853Larsson ( -1919)), Richard Bergh (1858Bergh ( -1919) ) and Georg Pauli , and the writers who called themselves "Det unga Sverige" ('The young Sweden'), including Gustaf af Geijerstam  and Victoria Benedictsson (1850-1888).In her political work, Ellen Key advocated the rights of the rural poor, of the workers' proletariat and in particular of women.She was the founder and co-founder respectively of the women's rights organizations "Tolfterna" ('The twelve') and "Nya Idun" ('New Idun').She was also a supporter of the socialist leaders August Palm (1849-1922) and Hjalmar Branting (1860-1925) and after the founding of the Swedish Social Democratic Party in 1889 appeared at party events.The circle of like-minded "enlightened radicals" which collected around Ellen Key and called themselves "Sällskapet Junta" ('the Junta Society') can be regarded as one of the  Ellen Key's work cannot be definitively classified as progressive or conservative, which to some extent is typical of the life reform movement in the Nordic countries.Although a campaigner for women's rights, she was branded as an anti-feminist, for example, by Hedwig Dohm (1831-1919) for maintaining that motherhood was a woman's calling and that her natural place was in the home (Ambjörnsson 2012, pp. 221-359;cf. Lane 2008, pp. 19-23).
Ellen Key exerted a major cultural and social influence far beyond the Junta Society and Sweden.Her numerous articles and other writings, in which she dealt with a wide spectrum of themes, were repeatedly collected in anthologies and translated into practically all European languages (Ambjörnsson 2012, pp.575-584).Her works on feminism and pedagogy had the greatest impact, especially her book Barnets århundrade ('The Century of the Child', Key 1900a; cf.
Ambjörnsson 2012, pp.135-219).She also undertook, especially in the early decades of the 20th century, extended lecture tours throughout the world and a great variety of people, from the authors Selma Lagerlöf  or Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) to the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), read her works and were lastingly influenced by them (Ambjornsson 2012, pp.

361-532; Friedman 2002).
Typical of the striving of the life reform movement for national and cultural renewal is the dispute that the Ellen Key waged in 1896 and 1897 with the New Romantic poet Verner von Heidenstam (1859Heidenstam ( -1940)).The latter described Sweden in his essay "Om svenskarnes lynne" ('On the character of Sweden') as a "widely travelled old man of the world, who has seen everything and tried everything" and was yet "rich in opportunities", but stood in the autumn of his life bent by age and burdens (Heidenstam 1896, quoted in Linnell 1995, p. 224;cf. Häfner 1998, pp. 13-18).Ellen Key criticised this old-age idea in her essay "Om patriotism" ('On Patriotism') as an obsolete national identity which was frozen as "commemorative stones, tombstones and memorial statues" and a ceremonial festive rhetoric, the most extreme expression of which was the national anthem, a pure song of homage to the monarch (Key 1897a).She concluded from this that the national identity needed a cultural and political renewal, i.e. the culture had to be re-invigorated from folk culture and the political conditions democratised.Here the artistic and moral education of the new populace played a crucial role, and this would take place according to Ellen Key, less in school and more in the home.She took her lead in this respect from the Norwegian art and literary historian Lorentz Dietrichson , who saw in a beautiful home the prerequisite for a beautiful, healthy and moral society.In addition Ellen Key maintained that building on the beauty of the home the new "religion of beauty" would conquer architecture and urban life, ennoble everyday life and ultimately transform the entire society (Sheffield 1997, pp. 35-43;Häfner 1998, pp. 25-35).

Arts and Crafts and Industry
The idea of cultural renewal through "Everyday Beauty" and a return to rural or folk handcrafts is not Ellen Key's invention, but rather an inheritance from the Arts and Crafts movement, which throughout the entire second half of the 19th century opposed increasing industrial mass production.In the Nordic countries these ideas were advocated most loudly by the national romantic movement in Norway.Firstly, in 1837 the landscape painter Johan Christian Dahl (1788-1857) praised the exemplary artistic quality of the traditional Nordic wooden building style.
Later this theory became most prominently represented by the Norwegian national antiquarian Herman Major Schirmer (1845-1913) and the Schirmer school he influenced (Lane 2000, pp. 19-48).
In Sweden, on the other hand, the Arts and Crafts movement in the latter half of the 19th century was more strongly characterised by its interest in industrial production.Following the repeal of guild laws and the removal of tradesmen's monopolies, the Swedish Arts and Crafts Association (Svenska Slöjdföreningen) was founded in 1845.It was to ensure the quality of craftsmen's products (Frick 1978, pp.14-62).However, in the steadily expanding exhibitions which the Association arranged in the second half of the 19th century the thematic focal point shifted.
Following the example of international exhibitions and in step with advancing industrialisation this moved increasingly from the presentation of domestic art and craft products to the exhibition of industrial products (Sörenson 1999).
The largest of these exhibitions was Allmänna konst-och industriutställningen 1897 in Stockholm or Stockholmsutställningen 1897 ('General Art and Industry Exhibition 1897', in short 'the Stockholm Exhibition 1897'), which was largely dominated by the presentation of technical and industrial achievements (Figure .2).Some 3700 exhibitors from all over the world presented their products and technological innovations in around a hundred pavilions, erected according to plans by Carl Westman (1866-1936) on the south bank of the bay Djurgårdsbrunnsviken (Hasselgren 1897; cf.Ekström 1994).The exhibition marked the high point of a development based on international expositions and through which national identity was presented, primarily through the technological advancements of domestic industry.In the architecture of the exhibition and the products exhibited this was given expression in an exotic festive eclecticism-the proverbial "cream-puff architecture" (Danish 'Flødeskumsarkitektur'), as it appeared in international exhibitions and towards the end of the 19th century also celebrated its breakthrough in the Nordic countries.A prime example of this was the large exhibition hall of Ferdinand Boberg (1860-1946) and Fredrik Lilljekvist (1863-1932), the leading contemporary Swedish exhibition architects, featuring a Turkish-style cupola and four minarets (Ekström 1994, pp.128-163).In her essay "On Patriotism" Ellen Key has surprisingly kind words to say regarding the exhibition.In so doing she refers less to the art and architecture of the exposition-apart from praising the work of her friend Carl Larsson, who through this occasion would gain access to a wide audience-and more to the exhibition as primarily an expression of national pride, energy, creativity and, as she wrote, as "a great national event", through which "national enthusiasm and national self-confidence experienced a renaissance".In so doing she conceded that this newly won self-consciousness was less the result of a national orientation of art, handcrafts or architecture but of the success of science, technology and industry (Key 1897a, pp.246-247; cf.Häfner 1998, pp. 42-47).
The reversion to traditional folk crafts and the distancing of arts and crafts from industrial production was not least thanks to external stimuli.As well as the National Romantic movement in Norway mention could also be made of the Austro-German art historian Jacob von Falke (1825-1897), director of Gemäldegalerie in Vienna.He visited Sweden in 1870 on the invitation of King Carl XV (1826-1872, regnavit 1859-1872) and in his book Die Kunst im Hause ('Art in the Home'), published the following year and translated into both Swedish and Norwegian, he expressed his admiration for Scandinavian arts and crafts.The English Arts and Crafts movement, the rise of which was followed with keen interest in Sweden, was another important influence.Ellen Key-as well as Carl Larsson-was influenced by publications from the movement.She was a reader, for example, of the art and crafts periodical The Studio right from the beginning of its official publication in 1893, from 1894 onwards the writings of John Ruskin (1819-1900) and from 1895 onwards those of William Morris (1834-1896) as well.She later made numerous references to them in her own writings, especially in Beauty for Everyone (Sheffield 1997, pp. 35-37; cf.Lane 2008, pp.22-23).

Beauty for Everyone
Not only did Ellen Key spread her conception of an artistic enrichment of everyday life through her writings and lectures.In the spring and autumn of 1899, as the first step towards reform of arts and crafts and cultural renewal, together with three friends from the Junta Society, Gerda and Richard Bergh and Carl G. Laurin, she furnished two model rooms in the Stockholm Workers' Institute, the so-called Blue and Green Rooms.The furnishings were to demonstrate "simple and functional forms" and were a "mixture of rural Swedish and contemporary English" styles (Key 1900b, pp. 40-42).In these four essays Ellen Key sets out a comprehensive agenda for cultural renewal, ranging from the reform of arts and crafts through the artistic enrichment of daily life to the establishment of festive customs-in short aimed a "religion of beauty".In the essay "Beauty in the Home" Ellen Key begins by referring to the conclusion of the Swedish art theorist of the late 18th century Carl August Ehrensvärd (1745-1800), that the need for beauty is a fundamental human need.She then proceeds from this to develop a practical guide for the home furnishings, in so doing propagating maxims like simplicity, practicality and expression of individual taste.She especially criticized the "shabby German" taste of the 1870s to 1890s, i.e. the industrially manufactured ruffles and plush interiors of late Historicism.In opposition to this she proposes an artistically sophisticated "everyday aesthetics" ('vardagslivets estetik'), arising on the one hand from the Gustavian classicism, whose combination of respectable austerity and simplicity expressed moral as well as aesthetic quality, and on the other hand, the arts and crafts of traditional rural folk culture.Ellen Key envisaged the path to this Beauty for Everyone, among other things, to be through the co-operation of industry and crafts, as she wrote in "Beauty in the Home": The only possibility of having more tasteful urban rooms is to begin by demanding from all sides that they are not decked out with these ugly and senseless frills but instead simplified in the direction of sound and refined taste.And the only way to ensure that everyone can acquire really affordable and lovely things is that the manufacturers-in particular of furniture, wallpaper, fabrics, In her essay "Everyday Beauty" the reformer evoked the beauty of the unadorned everyday life in nature's change of the seasons-meaning life in the country-the joy of simple work and self-realisation in art.In this context, she proposed a series of life principles, such as that every day you should read a good book.Here it is most apparent that not only arts and crafts and painting, but also education through regular reading played a central role in the life reform movement and, together with the joy of the simple life, comprised the celebration of everyday life, the "Beauty of Everyday Life" (Key 1891; cf.Sheffield 1997, p. 39).
In "Festive Customs", Ellen Key lamented the loss of old customs and holidays-and attributed this to a lack of healthy conservatism.She called for a renewal of the holiday calendar to promote the establishment of traditions continuing through generations and the festive elevation of everyday life.She sketched out a festive calendar which included both Christian high days and popular folk customs, such as Christmas, New Year's, Twelfth Night, Easter, Spring and Midsummer festivals, and described the relevant festive rituals for each of them.She conceived of these celebrations less as precursor to a golden age in the sense of Nietzsche, but first and foremost as a life reform means to structure and elevate everyday life.In this context she also noted that such festive occasions were of greatest significance for children and that it was the task of the mother as "the artist of the domestic sphere", to communicate to her children, for instance through festive occasions, a sense of beauty-a theme which she would later deal with in more detail in The Century of the Child (Key 1896; Key 1900a; cf.Sheffield 1997, pp. 39-40).
Finally, in "The Twilight Fire", the most poetic of the four texts, Ellen Key highlighted the particular importance of light, twilight and fire in the long, dark winters and bright summers as the origin of many Nordic traditions and the central role of the hearth as the focus of domestic society (Key 1895; cf.Sheffield 1997, p. 40).
Ellen Key's Beauty for Everyone is therefore based on a combination of the reformed arts and crafts, proximity to nature, down-to-earth work, artistic and literary education, as well as inter-generational traditions in the form of a festive customs.These aspects are manifested not only in Ellen Key's show rooms and publications, but at the same time also in contemporary Nordic painting.

Between the centre and the periphery
In tandem with and related to the efforts to develop a new everyday culture and a reform of arts and crafts, Nordic painters discovered the "Nordic" as a subject together with closely related themes such as the artists' celebration and festive rituals.This happened primarily through views from the outside portrayed by painters who had escaped the narrow circumstances of their home-countries-in the art academies in Denmark and Sweden, as well as in private schools in showed they were sufficiently impressed to maintain that they had not only caught up with French painters technically but their work also showed that unique "Nordic" quality (Braun 1982).A special importance was placed in the Nordic countries on Midsummer celebration ('Midsommar'), at summer solstice.It was viewed by rural people often as the year's second-most important celebration, after Christmas.Although its roots date back to pre-Christian traditions, the Midsummer celebration-just like celebration of St. Lucia's day and many other modern holidays-only acquired its current form and became of universal significance for the whole country in the late 19th century.This was partly the result of conscious efforts to construct a new national tradition (Frykman et al. 1991).The great importance of the midsummer for creating a national identity can be explained by its combination of popular tradition and natural display: On the one hand it is a festival linked to a number of popular folk customs, such as dancing around the Midsummer Pole ('midsommarstång') or May Pole, as portrayed in Anders Zorn's famous "Midsommardans" ('Midsummer Dance', 1897) (Figure 6).On the other hand summer solstice, as the longest day of the year-in the northern areas of Scandinavia actually a day without night-through its annual recurrence not only serves as the basis for the ritual character of the festival, but also connects it with a cosmic or atavistic natural experience, the idea of a soulful nature.
It both art and literature this is often continued in the parallel linking of inner psychological and external natural experience (Varnedoe 1982, pp. 18-19).

A Home: Life reform as lived and promoted by Carl Larsson
In the last decade of the 19th century a number of Nordic painters returned to their native countries from abroad.For example, Carl and Karin Larsson moved to Sundborn and Anders Zorn to Mora-both in the Dales (Dalarna) region-and the previously mentioned artist colonies and groups developed.This shifted the discourse on cultural renewal to those locations.To an increasing extent, the various arts and crafts, artistic and literary renewal movements united in a synthesis; this applied in particular to Ellen Key's ideas of "Everyday Beauty" and "Festive Customs" and the painters' characteristic "Nordic" subjects of artists' celebrations and festive rituals.They merged with the broader life reform movement of renewal which drove the social and cultural renewal-in both arts and crafts and in architecture (Lane 2000, pp. 79-117).
Carl Larsson's work and way of life serves as an exemplary embodiment of this life reformist renewal.At its core was a synthesis of art and life, as well as the ideal of a cheerful life in the country, unspoiled by modern industry.Carl Larsson's paintings show primarily the life of his own family in their home Lilla Hyttnäs, designed by him together with his wife Karin.He explained that his pictures were less naturalistic representations, but more a "manifesto", aimed at reforming equally "taste and family life" (Larsson 1899, p. 48).In fact, the domestic life and the everyday pursuits of the couple and their eight children were artistically enhanced.This became, as Ellen Key wrote, the product of "ingenious inspiration, festive moments and joyful work" (Key 1897b, pp.15-17, here p.      ).The modernism featured in the exhibition and promoted, in the Acceptera manifesto under the keyword "Functionalism", in architecture, urban planning and arts and crafts was regarded not only as the product of an inevitable progress, which had to be "accepted"-hence the title Acceptera-but also as a logical continuation of traditional architecture and arts and crafts following Ellen Key's "Everyday Beauty" (cf.Näsström 1930).
In subsequent years this functionalism developed into an agenda equally aesthetic and political for the restructuring of Sweden as a "Folkhem" (literally 'a People's Home'), the term symbolising Sweden's social democratic welfare state (Lund 1998;Rudberg 1998).Under the social democratic prime minister Per Albin Hansson (1885-1946) Ellen Key's concept of home, supported by the concept of "Samhällsmoderlighet" ('society's motherly care') which she proposed and which included state welfare and state relief, was expanded to a meaningful model for the social community life of the entire society (Key 1903).The actually existing "People's Home" developed from "Beauty in the Home" and "Beauty For Everyone" (Rudberg 1992).

Conclusion
The life reformist renewal movement, which arose in the Nordic countries as a response to the crisis resulting from industrialisation, extended far beyond the reform of individual spheres of life.
On the contrary, from the demand for social and cultural renewal a comprehensive agenda grew for reform of the national culture.This ranged from reform of the arts and crafts, with a revival of traditional folk handcrafts, through the discovery of the "Nordic" as a subject for painting, to the artistic elevation of everyday life and the establishment of festive rituals.
The concepts of "Festive Customs" and "Everyday Beauty" promoted by Ellen Key played a decisive role, as they provided the programmatic basis for a festive enrichment of everyday life as well as applying an aesthetic assessment to all its aspects.Ellen Key called for a new "religion of beauty" which, based on the beauty of the home, would conquer arts and crafts, architecture and everyday life, elevate everyday living and ultimately transform the society.It is worth noting in this context the extent to which the two notions of "Festive Customs" and "Everyday Beauty" served to encompass the various reform efforts and as such contributed to overcoming the boundaries between the different media-painting, arts and crafts and architecture.The ideas expressed by Ellen Key in her writings on "Festive Customs" and "Everyday Beauty"-summarized in Beauty for Everyone-found their expression in painting as well as in arts and crafts and architecture.
Thanks to the complementary effects and mutual enhancement of the various media, the Nordic life reform movement succeeded in linking its quest for cultural and social renewal to a comprehensive festive ennobling of everyday life and an artistically enhanced everyday beauty.
Conversely, it can be stated that through the parallel impact of efforts in the various media they become themselves a festival of everyday life, to some extent the boundaries between agenda and self-presentation or even between art and life were dissolved.This can be observed most clearly in the life and work of Carl Larsson.During his stay in Paris and Grez-sur-Loing, and later with his membership of groups such as The Opponents or the Junta Society, and through his exchanges with Ellen Key he became one of the leading protagonists of the Nordic life reform movement.His pictures show the results of these efforts in the example of his own family-the life characterised by festivities in their artistically furnished home.Finally, Carl Larsson's life and work was further promoted in numerous publications, both his own as well as those of Ellen Key, as a perfect example of the vaunted life reform ideals.
In its pursuit of national and cultural renewal the Nordic life reform movement was not only successful in permanently influencing painting, arts and crafts and architecture, but to a certain extent in spreading the renewal to the whole of society.Admittedly this did not result in a golden age or "total festivity".But the renewal contributed in Sweden also to transforming the country, through a conversion equally aesthetic as well as political, to a "People's Home" version of a social democratic welfare state.
The furniture was designed by Carl Westman, the crockery by the artist Alf Wallander (1862-1914).The facilities were completed with reproductions of artworks on the walls: in the Blue Room, for instance, through pictures by artists as varied as Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) and Carl Larsson, painters whom Key and her co-campaigners clearly regarded as models (in the case of Dürer and Millet) or as part of the Nordic life reform movement and were intended to add artistic support to the pedagogical import of the interior.The model rooms were to demonstrate how, through the use of functional furniture, the contribution of harmonious colours and the rejection of historical décor, interiors could be furnished tastefully and with little expense (Key 1900b; cf.Lengborn 2002, pp.69-75; Lane 2008, p. 24).The great success of this exhibition-it was viewed by 5000 visitors-encouraged Ellen Key to extend and revise her essay "Skönhet i hemmen" ('Beauty in the Home') published in 1897, and together with the three magazine articles published in 1891-1897: "Vardagsskönhet" ('Everyday Beauty'), "Festvanor" ('Festive Customs') and "Skymningsbrasan" ('The Twilight Fire') present a summary in the anthology Skönhet för Alla ('Beauty for Everyone') (Key 1891; Key 1895; Key 1896; Key 1897b).This appeared in 1899 with a title page designed by Carl Larsson in the series of the radical Uppsala Student Association Verdandi published by her friend Albert Bonnier (Key 1899; Figure 3).
Norway and Finland.At the beginning of the 19th century the framework of academic training still mainly encompassed a Grand Tour to Italy, although from about 1840 the academies in Munich and in particular in Düsseldorf in gained in attractiveness.In the 1860s and at the latest with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 these centres in turn declined in popularity and Paris became, as the cultural mecca of Europe, the preferred destination of Nordic painters (Varnedoe 1982, pp.13-19; Hedström 2012, pp.187-190).In the 1870s and 1880s a veritable colony of Nordic artists arose in the French capital, studying mainly in private academies or taking lessons in the studios of established painters.For example, the previously mentioned Hanna Pauli attended the Académie Colarossi in 1885-1887.Among the private teachers Léon Bonnat (1833-1922) was the most popular.His Nordic students included, for example, in 1877-1879 the Dane P.S. [Peder Severin] Krøyer (1851-1909), in 1885 the Norwegian Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and in 1887-1889 Prinz Eugen of Sweden (1865-1947) (Sarajas-Korte 1982).Among the Nordic painters living in Paris at this time are some of those who achieved great success and became known internationally-first and foremost the Suedo-Finnish Albert Edelfelt (1854-1905) as well as the somewhat younger Anders Zorn.After studying in Stockholm and undertaking extensive study trips Anders Zorn moved to Paris in 1888 and remained there-with the exception of a one-year stay in the US on the occasion of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago 1893-for eight years.He became one of the most prominent painters in the French capital, before returning in 1896 to Stockholm (Bastek 2012).In Paris the Nordic painters encountered the latest cultural currents and artistic techniques of the time, such as realism, naturalism and impressionism, and in the artist colonies in Barbizon and Grez-sur-Loing the practice of painting en plein air.Furthermore, they discovered a broad range of new artistic subjects.It is striking that they only developed a limited interest in portraying the bustle of city life, although their cosmopolitan experience and the cultural life in the French capital with its ateliers, salons and cafés must have served not only as the backdrop for their creation, but also as an influential source of inspiration for the painters from the countries on the northern periphery of Europe.However, their esteem for their native lands, more precisely the penchant for the representation of the Nordic landscape and rural life grew; things Nordic became a much-loved topos.This enthusiasm found support from abroad in the generally pessimistic and anti-modern mood, which was widespread in the Panic of 1873 and the Long Depression (1873-1896) on the European continent, following which especially Norway and Finland were reinterpreted and transformed from a backward periphery to the image of unspoiled origins (Varnedoe 1982, pp.13-19; Huusko 2012).This explains the growing appreciation which the Nordic painters enjoyed.If they were still little appreciated at the Exposition universelle de Paris de 1878 (World Exhibition of 1878 in Paris), the French critics at the Exposition universelle de Paris de 1889 (World Exhibition of 1889 in Paris)

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(www.preprints.org)| NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 28 November 2017 doi:10.20944/preprints201711.0178.v13.2Artists' celebrations and festive rituals as motifsTwo visual themes stand out alongside the representations of landscapes together with impressions of light and weather-"Twilight and Light" (Jackson 2012)-as especially typical for Nordic painting: the artists' celebration and the rural holiday customs.Both subjects take on major significance in the Nordic life reform movement and complement or partially overlap with Ellen Key's concepts of "Festive Customs" and "Everyday Beauty".The theme of the artists' celebration became among the Nordic painters a systematic self-representation of a group gathered in a festive ritual which regarded itself in the post-feudal society primarily as a cultural trend-setter.This can be seen in two examples of works featuring this subject: Hugo Birger's (1854-1887) "Skandinaviska konstnärernas frukost i Café Ledoyen" ('Scandinavian artists at Breakfast in Café Ledoyen') depicting a number of Skandiavian artists at breakfast in Café Ledoyen in Paris on the day of the Paris Salon's opening in 1886, and P.S. Krøyer's "Hip, hip, hurra!Kunstnerfest på Skagen" ('Hip, hip, hooray!Artists' Celebration in Skagen', 1884-1888) (Figures4-5).Despite the festive informality of the image and the spontaneity they portray, both pictures are consciously composed illustrations of the two groups of artists, the leading Swedish and Finnish artists in Paris in 1886 and the members of the artists' colony in the Danish Skagen district.In both pictures it is not only possible to read the composition of the respective group at the time-each person represented was and still is known by name-, but also of the relations between those portrayed.In addition both portray the artists as established bourgeois groups; Hugo Birger at least placed them on the opening day of the Paris Salon in a highly representative locale, i.e. the Café Ledoyen, one of the finest establishments in the French capital, between the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the River Seine, at that time situated behind the Palais de l'Industrie (erected in 1855, demolished in 1897) and today located behind the Petit Palais, built in 1897-1900 (Arvidsson et al. 2014, pp.150-153, 164-167).

17
).They worked and played and Carl Larsson presented a series of holiday customs which structured and enriched the family's everyday life, such as shown in the picture "Namnsdag på härbret" ('Nameday in the Storage House', 1898) (Larsson 1899) (Figure7).

Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 28 November 2017 doi:10.20944/preprints201711.0178.v1 glass
, porcelain and metal objects-link up with arts and crafts practitioners so that all of these objects, from the simplest and smallest, such as the match box, to the largest, are given a beautiful form and appropriate decoration.Only then, when there is nothing ugly left to buy, when beautiful things are as cheap as ugly ones now are, can beauty for everyone actually become a reality.(Key1899,quotedhereinKey1913,pp.5-6.)In this context Ellen Key referred repeatedly to John Ruskin and, at least in the revised version of 1899, to William Morris as well.Their influence characterizes especially the aesthetic ideals that she formulated in Beauty for Everyone.She traces the roots of beauty to functionality, the sense of beauty to moderation and restraint and good taste basically to honesty.The ideal of beautiful arts and crafts products correspondingly derives from functional form, the absence of ornament, and good materials(Key 1899, pp.11, 18, 21).As an aesthetic education and to become acquainted with the traditional rural folk culture, EllenKeyrecommended a visit to the open-air museum Skansen, founded in 1891 on the Stockholm island Djurgården.And as a model of the ideal of festively refined, everyday aesthetics she proposed the artistically conceived and handicraft-rich home of Carl and Karin Larsson, Lilla Hyttnäs in Sundborn, which they had furnished with simple, colourful, furniture and textiles inspired by traditional rural models.(Key 1897b, pp.15-17; cf.Häfner 1998, pp.31-35; Lane 2008, pp.25-27).
(Wickman 1995);Paulsson 1919)Carl Larsson were also reflected in Swedish arts and crafts, as can be seen in contemporary arts and crafts exhibitions and later in the work of Gregor Paulsson.The next exhibition, Konstindustriutställningen 1909 ('Arts and Crafts Exposition 1909'), strongly reflected a return to indigenous handcrafts and artwork.In keeping with the life reform ideas, from its buildings to the entrance tickets, the exhibition was completely designed in a bright romantic style by Ferdinand Boberg(Sörenson 1999, pp.357-420).The art historian GregorPaulsson (1889Paulsson ( -1977)), from 1920 onwards director of the Swedish Arts and Crafts Association and a key figure in the modernisation of architecture and arts and crafts, also made frequent reference to Ellen Key(Sheffield 1977, pp.43-49).As he wrote in his autobiography, his reading of Ellen Key's Folkbildningsarbetet ('Popular education',Key 1906) was a transformational educational experience(Paulsson 1974, p. 14).Both his books Den nya arkitekturen ('The New Architecture',Paulsson 1916)and Vackrare vardagsvara ('Better Things for Everyday Life',Paulsson 1919)were to a certain extent a continuation of Ellen Key's efforts-although he primarily based them on the ideas of the German Werkbund and the German debate prior to World War I (Seelow 2016a).He called for an extensive reform of Swedish arts and crafts and described a concept of developing taste through artistic education(Paulsson 1916;Paulsson 1919).Similarly Hemutställningen ('Home Exhibition') which he curated in Liljevalchs Kunsthalle (1917), at which 23 furnished affordable apartments for plain workers were on display, could be regarded as a continuation of Ellen Key's Blue and Green Rooms(Wickman 1995).
The same applied to Stockholmsutställningen 1930 av konstindustri, konsthantverk och hemslöjd ('Stockholm Exhibition 1930 of Art and Crafts and Home Industries') directed by Gregor Paulsson.Together with the Acceptera manifesto published by the exhibitors in 1931 it marks the breakthrough of modernism in Sweden and the Nordic countries (Asplund et al. 1931; Rudberg 1999; Seelow 2016b