In the late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth centuries, as the Nordic countries yearned to define themselves—their cultures, their values and their borders—Mother Nature was always foundational to the Scandinavian psyche. Nature had long been considered a healing force in Nordic cultures. At the Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century, Vitalism became a fashionable philosophy: the belief that Nature's "life force" animates and connects all living creatures. Vitalism proposed that Nature had the power to cure physical ailments, restore healthful vigor, and to (even) reform society's morality. Such important social currents became manifest in the artworks of the period. Vitalism viewed nudity (especially outdoors) as natural and healthful—a return to mankind's innocence and purity (perhaps a return to Eden). Furthermore, Vitalism was a reaction against (what was considered) the destructive forces of Industrialism. A whole school of artworks showed naked people (especially children and athletes) communing with Nature in the buff.
Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1863-1958) was a Danish painter, engraver, sculptor, ceramicist, and architect. While he is best known for his Symbolist and Expressionist paintings, he also championed the healthful joys of Vitalism for a period in his career. Shown above, a large format lithograph poster (c. 1909) promoting an exhibition of his work at Willumsen's Atelier (his studio). A strapping, athletic nude male poses before the painter. Radiant sunlight reflects off the model, the painter, and his house in the background. Images like this promoted the precepts of Vitalism—that nudity in the outdoors was healthful, invigorating, restorative and natural. Willumsen's famous painting, Sun and Youth (1910), hangs in the Gothenburg Museum of Art in Sweden (click here for a link to the work).
Children were also featured frequently in works of Vitalism. Children conveyed mankind's unaffected innocence—a remembrance of uncomplicated humanity Before the Fall. And, in the mind of Nordic people, such communing with Nature was healthy and pure. Shown above, By the Spring (1910) by Finnish painter Benny Soldan-Brofeldt (1863-1945).
Nordic painters—those with high aspirations and the means to travel—would spend time working in France, Italy, England and other established centers of great art. Danish painter Peder Severin Krøyer (1851-1909) painted Boys on the Beach at Amalfi (1890) while honeymooning in Italy with his new wife (also a painter). The innocent boys, set against a sparkling, clear sea—as the sun grows low on the horizon—captured the healthy commingling of Nature and human nudity.
Here's another image, Bathing Youth (1900), by Swedish painter Johan Axel Gustav Acke (1859-1924). His quick and spontaneous brushwork shows his embrace of Impressionism—and a rejection by the Avante-garde of the previous generation's more academic traditionalism.
Vitalism did not only portray naked men and boys (although lingering Victorian propriety probably discouraged many female models from disrobing—especially before a male artist). Healthy and athletic women were sometimes the subjects of artist's works. In the painting above, Lady Mountaineer (1902), by Jens Ferdinand Willumsen, a hearty mountain climber rejoices upon the completion of her exertion.
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