Illustration: Ferdinand and Anna Boberg. A Funeral at Leksand, Dalecarlia, Sweden tapestry, 1908.
The tapestry A Funeral at Leksand, Dalecarlia, Sweden which was designed by the husband and wife team Ferdinand and Anna Boberg, became one of the central themes of the 1909 Art, Craft and Industry Exhibition held in Stockholm.
Both Ferdinand and Anna were multi-disciplined artists and designers who produced work in a range of craft disciplines. However, Anna Boberg was particularly active within the textile framework while Ferdinand Boberg was a prominent Swedish Architect.
Ferdinand almost single-handedly designed the new city or white town as it was known at the time, which had been designated for the exhibition of 1909. He purposely limited the colour range of the exterior of the buildings and pavilions, most of which appeared as white. This was to accentuate a contrast between the stark exterior and the colourful and sensory interiors full of Swedish art, design and craft work.
Illustration: Entrance to the Art, Craft and Industry Exhibition, 1909.
The exhibition was aimed to highlight the contemporary state of Swedish art, craft and industry. It is fair to say that it was somewhat dominated by the applied arts, particularly in the format of textiles. Sweden had for long been associated with a particular excellence in the field of textile art and craft and this exhibition was keen to underline that excellence and to emphasise the broad skill base that was part of that excellence.
The big names in Swedish textiles were represented and included a number of craft organisations and institutions along with prominent retailers. Therefore, Handerbetets Vanner (Friends of Handiwork), the Licium and Nordiska Kompaniet were prominently displayed. A number of individuals were also associated with the exhibition and textile work was included by the likes of Alfred Wallander, Carl Larsson, Gunnar Wennerberg, Anders Zorn, Agnes Skogman-Sutthoff, Jancke Bjork, Astrid Wesslau Hjort, Signe Asplin, Sofie Gisberg, Hilda Starck, Maria Sjostrom, Carin Wastberg and of course Ferdinand and Anna Boberg.
The compositional title of the tapestry produced by the Boberg's seems to have been specifically chosen either because Dalecarlia was where Ferdinand Boberg was born and grew up, or more possibly and even probably, because Dalecarlia was an area of Sweden that had seen a marked increase in recent years in the revival and expansion of a whole range of textile crafts including weaving, knit, embroidery and lace. A number of Dalecarlian towns and parishes had representations of work at the exhibition.
Illustration: Official catalogue of the Art, Craft and Industry Exhibition, 1909.
The large Boberg tapestry illustrated here seems to be more representational of the skills and traditions of rural Swedish textile craft than that of any form of an ambitious portrayal of contemporary Sweden. However, in its own way the tapestry was ambitious as it reflected a confidence in the position that textiles played within Sweden. It is perhaps better to see it as a summation or even celebration of the traditions and cultural life that, in is some respects at least, the exhibition hoped to reflect and maintain.
Although the exhibition itself was meant to be clearly seen as an examination of contemporary Sweden, the nature and compositional subject matter of this tapestry in particular, which was said to dominate the textile segment of the exhibition, reflected the roots of the tradition and therefore the strength of textile craft in the country, rather than perhaps that that of its contemporary outlook. However, in a country where textile crafts have been maintained and protected for centuries if not millennia, this is perhaps understandable and should perhaps be celebrated as much today as it was just over one hundred years ago.
Further reading links:
Swedish Folk Art: All Tradition Is Change
SWEDISH TEXTILE ART: Traditional Marriage Weavings from Scania (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Swedish Textile Art)
247 Swedish Craft Artists: A Guide from South to North
Modern Swedish arts and crafts in pictures,
Weave Structures The Swedish Way - Volume 1
Twined Knitting : A Swedish Folkcraft Technique
Arts and crafts: At the Swedish Chicago Exposition
Old Swedish Quilts
Dalarna (Dalecarlia): A Description of Its Scenery, Its People and Its Culture
The Region of Halia in Dalecarlia Sweden.
