Människor och målningar. Inredningsmåleri i hälsingegårdar 1750–1800

Abstract

Hälsingland is a province that historically had no nobility and where farmers were freeholders. From the end of the Middle Ages to the second half of the 19th century, wall and ceiling paintings have been preserved in or from farmhouses, partly as intact rooms, partly as loose wall canvases or fragments. The preserved rooms date mainly from the 19th century, and some farms with interiors of this kind have been declared World Heritage Sites. There are eight farms from the period 1750–1800 in Hälsingland, in which there are whole room interiors or from which such interiors come from. These have formed the research material for the thesis. The purpose of the thesis is to examine interior painting in Hälsingland farms during the second half of the 18th century from a cultural-historical perspective by discussing the context of creation, the regional society, the people involved and how interior painting has been used from its creation to the present day. Theory and methodology have been derived from Material Culture Studies and Viccy Coltmans model has been used for the study. The study shows that there is evidence that several of the eight examined farm households, who originally commissioned the painting a few years before the dating, had received an inheritance, which can be interpreted as a contributing factor to the family’s financial ability to invest in a newly painted interior in the already existing festivity room, or a completely new building. The identity of the painter can be estab - lished in six of the eight farms. Mainly local folk painters were hired, but in one case a master painter from Hudiksvall was engaged. He had recently painted interiors in the parish church where the farmer was the churchwarden. The motifs in the eight studied farms are mainly biblical, both from the Old and New Testaments and the Old Testament Apocrypha. The second largest category is allegorical representations. Secular images, such as portraits of contemporary celebrities, illustrations of fairy tales and fables, and still lifes of flowers and birds, are also included. In one of the studied farms there are no figurative scenes, but rather rocaille, floral arrangements and patterns