The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (), commonly called the Royal Academy, is located in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
, Sweden. An independent organization that promotes the development of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other fine arts, it is one of several
Swedish Royal Academies
The Royal Academies are independent organizations, founded on Royal command, that act to promote the arts, culture, and science in Sweden. The Swedish Academy and Academy of Sciences are also responsible for the selection of Nobel Prize laureate ...
. The
Royal Institute of Art
The Royal Institute of Art () founded in 1735 is an institution in Stockholm, Sweden for higher education in art.
In 1735,
Carl Gustaf Tessin
Count Carl Gustaf Tessin (5 September 1695 – 7 January 1770) was a Swedish Count and politician and son of architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and Hedvig Eleonora Stenbock. He was one of the most brilliant personages of his day, and the mo ...
set up a drawing school at
Stockholm Castle
Stockholm Palace, or the Royal Palace, ( or ) is the official residence and major Crown palaces in Sweden, royal palace of the Monarchy of Sweden, Swedish monarch (King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, Queen ...
, naming it the Royal Drawing Academy. It was modeled after French academies of the day as a gathering place for established artists and art connoisseurs. The painters
Guillaume Taraval
Guillaume Thomas Taraval (21 December 1701 – April 1750) was a French born, Swedish painter.
Biography
Guillaume Thomas Raphaël Taraval was born in France, the son of François Taraval and Chatherine Masson. He became orphaned early in li ...
,
Johan Henrik Scheffel
Johan Henrik Scheffel (9 April 1690 – 21 December 1781) was a Swedish artist. He became known for his portraits of Carl von Linné, Christopher Polhem
Christopher Polhammar (18 December 1661 – 30 August 1751) better known as Christopher ...
, and
Olof Arenius
Olof Arenius (16 December 1701 – 5 May 1766) was a Swedish portrait painter.
Biography
Arenius was born in the parish of Bro in Uppland, Sweden. His father was a vicar in Upplands-Bro Municipality, Upplands-Bro. After a period of theology stu ...
and the architect
Carl Hårleman
Baron Carl Hårleman (27 August 1700 – 9 February 1753) was a Sweden, Swedish architect.
Biography
Hårleman was born in Stockholm, son of the garden architect and head of the royal parks and gardens Johan Hårleman, who had been Ennoblemen ...
taught there, and the first group of students included Johan Pasch.
In 1766, the academy expanded its activities following a parliamentary decree. In 1768, its name was changed to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In 1773, King
Gustav III
Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden.
Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he saw ...
wrote the first statutes for the academy's organization. At the time, the curriculum spanned architecture, graphics, anatomy, theory of perspective, and cultural history. The late 18th century is considered the first golden age of the Royal Academy, when great artists of the time such as
Johan Tobias Sergel
Johan Tobias Sergel (; 7 September 1740 in Stockholm – 26 February 1814 in Stockholm) was a Swedish neoclassical sculptor. Sergels torg, the largest square in the centre of Stockholm and near where his workshop stood, is named after him.
Life ...
were elected as members and also taught there. In 1810, it was renamed again to Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (Swedish: ), the name it still bears today.
By the 1830s, there was beginning to be opposition to the Royal Academy's commitment to traditional
academic art
Academic art, academicism, or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. This method extended its influence throughout the Western world over several centuries, from its origins i ...
. In addition, while both men and women could be elected as members of the academy, at the time women could only study art by special permission before 1864, when women students were accepted.Bengtsson, Eva-Lena "Konstakademien och Mejan", i Kungl. Konsthögskolan Vårutställning 2005 (Utställningskatalog), 2005 The Stockholm Art Association was formed to offer exhibition alternatives, and an Impressionist artists' group known as
Opponenterna
('the Opponents') was a group of 84 Swedish artists who, under the leadership of Ernst Josephson, organized the Opponent Movement () in the 1880s. On 27 March 1885, the members submitted their written demands to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine ...
('the Opponents') arose as well.
Location
In 1780, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture moved from
Stockholm Palace
Stockholm Palace, or the Royal Palace, ( or ) is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch (King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia use Drottningholm Palace as their usual residence). Stockholm Palace is in Stadsholm ...
into a 17th-century palace designed by the architect
Nicodemus Tessin the Elder
Nicodemus Tessin the Elder () (7 December 1615 – 24 May 1681) was an important Swedish architect.
Biography
Nicodemus Tessin was born in Stralsund in Pomerania and came to Sweden as a young man. There he met and worked with the architect Sim ...
on Fredsgatan street in the city center. In the years 1842–1846 it was redesigned by the architect
Fredrik Blom
Fredrik Blom (24 January 1781 – 25 September 1853) was a Swedish military officer, architect and professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.
Life
Fredrik Blom was born in Karlskrona. His father was a compass maker journeyman. He began his ...
and an extension was added in 1893–1896.
See also
*
List of Swedish artists
This is a list of notable Swedish visual artists.
A
* Emil Åberg (1864–1940), painter, graphics artist, illustrator, animator, and director
*Emma Adbåge (born 1982), illustrator
*Ottilia Adelborg (1855–1936), illustrator
*Ulla Adlerf ...
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
Arts
The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...