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Scandinavian art at the turn of the twentieth century, has been sorely disregarded and we do not seem to have looked any further than the work of Edvard Munch from these northern countries. This may, perhaps, be a result of our love affair with French art, as Paris was the centre of the art world at the close of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century. This fascination is still present today in many artists’ work, consequently few works which represent an important part of the cultural heritage of the Nordic countries have found their way into any of our national collections.
It is, therefore, quite understandable that any characteristics found in the work of artists from the north of Europe have only too rarely manifested themselves in the work of artists from further south. The probable exception is that of Germany where many scandinavian painters, composers and writers studied and lived during their formative years. Similar parallels are also to be found in the twentieth century with creative artists from the Baltic states. Many managed to escape the totalitarian restrictions of the USSR and other hard-line communist states by moving to other parts of Europe. “Norden” or the concept of Nordic countries is ambiguous, politically, even now. Historically, Estonia and Latvia, although not normally seen as part of Scandinavia should at least be included in an analysis of it.