Introduction: Nordic Artists Colonies 1870-1914 (Part One)

This is the first ever publication in English (and indeed in any language) on artists colonies in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, as well as the Nordic colony at Grez-sur-Loing in France. It provides a unique overview of this rich period (late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries) in Scandinavia, where artists who had trained in France returned to their native countries in order to work 'en plein air'. As the publication will demonstrate, there were extraordinary parallels between the different communities, not only in terms of, for example, their working practices, the role of women and their concern with national identity, but in the influential writers such as Tolstoy, Richard Berg and Ellen Key who influenced them. The special edition will be published in two volumes, focusing on the 1880s (vol.1) and the 1890s (vol.2) It includes translations of publications, from the late 19th century onwards, that have never previously been available in English. Each translation or group of translations has a short 500-word introduction by the 'proposer'. I am sole editor for the project, and wrote the introductory essay.