Nya perspektiv på svensk porträttkonst från perioden 1780-1810

Abstract

New Perspectives on Swedish Portraiture During the Period 1780-1810 In this article, I have tried to study the way man and woman is being presented in the art of the Neo-classicism and the Romanticism. Individuality has not yet entered the art of portraiture, but at this time there are alterations in how the two sexes are being shown. We have new "moulds" and patterns to investigate. By taking the matter of gender in consideration while examining certain aspects of these adjusted definitions of masculinity and femininity, it is perhaps possible to start to understand why these changes took place at this time in history. Perhaps also, to relate those definitions to the ones we use today. One major element clearly distinguishable both in man and woman is the high value that was placed on a fine sensibility. In the process of man taking over this traditionally female territory, the difference between sexes had to be re-established. In the portraits, we can see how men are characterized by a special kind of deeper feeling, more intense, more serious. The Neoc1assical movement seems instead to emphasize the kind of woman put forward in the conduct-literature of the time: sober, calm and composed. The Romantic woman is very sensitive, but tearfully so. One suspects influence from the medical debate of the day where women because of their weak nervous systems in fact were considered unable to follow longer, more complicated lines of argument. Science proved that the female sex was very different from the male at a time in history when modem society was being formed. It was in fact their nature, biology itself, that excluded women from the public scene. Another obvious trait is the nakedness of women in the portraiture of the day. Fashion dictated thin fabrics and revealing growns with high waists, and artists painted them with great emphasis on chest and limbs. This is visible in both artistic movements in vogue. Body was important to female identity. Masculine bodies were toned down. Conscious sensuality is nowhere to be seen, however. Again, we see to which degree the portraits functioned as ideological instruments.