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| Ferdinand Fagerlin The Homecoming 1885 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| John Forssell Gallery at the Louvre 1883 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Nils Forsberg Death of a Hero 1888 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
"The scene with the dying soldier receiving the last rites was close at hand for Nils Forsberg. During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71, he worked as a medic. The soldier was modelled on one of the many casualties Forsberg encountered in the siege of Paris. The scene is set in Notre Dame, which served as a field hospital. The painting was a success at the Paris Salon of 1888 and made Forsberg famous. The merchant August Röhss bought the painting and toured it in Sweden before donating it to the Nationalmuseum in 1889."
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| Gustaf Cederström Recruiting Sergeants 1879 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Gustaf Cederström Epilogue 1874 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Eva Bonnier Reflection in Blue 1887 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
"During the 19th century, two key images of women evolved: the weak, sensitive and psychosomatic upper-class woman, and the strong, dangerous and infectious lower-class woman. The "convalescent" became a symbol of female fragility and thus evidence of women's inability to take part in public life. Those images can be seen as a reaction to the emancipation of women at the time and as an attempt to return them to the home and the private sphere. But in the Nordic region, one could find many hundreds of female artists and authors during this period. The female artists in Sweden were privileged, compared with their European sisters, since they had access to an academic education. The women's department of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm opened in 1864, and professional women had a major influence on the cultural life of the period. They changed both the view of the role of the artist and that of middle-class family life, and in so doing they shook the norm of the male artist to the core. But at the turn of the century there was a backlash; women's emancipation was thwarted, together with a widespread fear of the "New Woman."
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| Carl Wilhelmson Resignation 1895 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Richard Bergh Hypnotic Séance 1887 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Johan Fredrik Höckert The Poster ca. 1851-57 oil on panel Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
"The poster captivating the attention of these fashionable ladies is an advertisement for one of Paris's more popular establishments, the Bal-Mabille. Here, Parisians went to dance under artificial palm trees, ride roundabouts, and buy refreshments – illuminated by 3,000 gas lights. It was here also that the can-can was introduced to French audiences in the 1840s. The Swedish artist Höckert, who lived in Paris from 1851 to 1857, was probably well-acquainted with the Bal-Mabille and its allurements – this painting is subtitled Temptation."
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| Georg Pauli Lady in a Landau - Motif from Paris ca. 1881-83 oil on panel Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Carl Skånberg The Grand Canal, Venice 1882 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Anders Zorn The Bride 1886 watercolor Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Ernst Josephson David and Saul 1878 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Georg von Rosen The Sphinx 1887 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
– quoted passages from curator's notes at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm