STOCKHOLM.- The exhibition A Mirror of Nature presents the best of Nordic landscape painting from the mid 19th century through to the early 20th century. Trace the development of the landscape as seen through the eyes of painters, and learn about the role played by art and nature in building national identity in the Nordic countries. The exhibition features works by well-known Scandinavian artists such as Edvard Munch, Wilhelm Hammershøi and Akseli Gallen-Kallela, to name but a few. The exhibition is on show in Stockholm 30 September–14 January 2007.

Collaborative exhibition: A Mirror of Nature is a collaborative exhibition produced by the four Nordic national galleries: Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; Konstmuseet Ateneum, Helsinki; Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo; and Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. It will be on show at these galleries and at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minnesota, a state that became home to many Swedish settlers.

Five headings: The works included in the exhibition are grouped thematically under five headings: Nordic Sublime, Close to Nature, In the Open Air, Evocative Landscape and Landscapes of the Mind. By and large, this thematic structure also reflects the chronological development of landscape painting, from the heroic, romantic wildernesses of the 1840s to the dreamy, inward-looking mental landscapes of the turn of the century.

Exhibition catalogue: Accompanying the exhibition is a large-format, hardcover catalogue of some 300 pages, which is available in English and the four Nordic languages. Written by a team of Nordic specialists, the book is lavishly illustrated, with colour reproductions of all the works. A total of nine different articles examine the subject of Nordic landscape painting. Alongside an introductory survey and thematic essays, there are two studies written from the viewpoint of the history of ideas, as well as descriptive entries on all the individual paintings, biographies of the artists and a bibliography. Curator: Torsten Gunnarsson, Director of Collections.