The Varberg School – the history of the art movement, Bergh, Nordström, Kreuger, and mood painting

The Varberg School is the name of the small but pivotal group of artists who gathered in Varberg on the Halland coast between 1893 and 1896 and created a new kind of Swedish landscape art: simplified, serene, emotionally charged, and strongly influenced by French Synthetism. The core consisted of three painters – Richard Bergh, Karl Nordström, and Nils Kreuger – all of whom had taken part in the Opponents’ revolt against the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1885 and together founded the Artists’ Association. The name came from Prince Eugen, who jokingly wrote to Bergh in the autumn of 1893 about “l’école de Varbère.” For three years, they painted the fortress, the heather, the coastal meadows, and twilight over the Kattegat. The paintings produced in Varberg became one of the pathways into 1890s National Romanticism and Swedish mood painting – art that is as popular today in museums as it is on posters and canvases in Swedish homes.

This page is intended to be the most comprehensive resource on the Varberg School. We cover its origins in the Nordic artists’ colony at Grez-sur-Loing, introduce the three artists and their most important works, explain what Synthetism and mood painting actually mean in practice, and show where you can see the paintings today – from the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm to the Gothenburg Museum of Art and Museum Halland in Varberg. We also connect the group to related pages such as Richard Bergh, the Opponents and the Artists’ Association, and National Romanticism. Finally, you’ll find practical advice on how the muted west coast light works as art in your own home.

Contents
↓ What is the Varberg School?
↓ From Grez-sur-Loing to the Halland coast – the story
↓ The artists and their most important works
↓ Style and technique – Synthetism and mood painting
↓ Legacy, influence and where to see the works today
↓ The Varberg School at home – an interior design guide
↓ Timeline of the Varberg School
↓ Related artists and movements
↓ Frequently asked questions about the Varberg School

What is the Varberg School?

Quick facts: The Varberg School was a Swedish artists’ colony and artistic movement in Varberg, Halland, active mainly from 1893 to 1896. The core group consisted of Richard Bergh (1858–1919), Karl Nordström (1855–1923), and Nils Kreuger (1858–1930). Kreuger settled in Varberg as early as 1887; Bergh and Nordström arrived with their families in the autumn of 1893. The name “l’école de Varbère” was coined by Prince Eugen in a letter to Bergh in the autumn of 1893. The style combined plein-air painting with Synthetism and Symbolism, inspired by artists including Paul Gauguin. Bergh introduced the concept of mood painting in an essay in 1896. That same year, all three moved to Stockholm, and Nordström became chairman of the Artists’ Association from 1896 to 1920. Works by the group can be found today, among other places, at the Nationalmuseum, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, the Thiel Gallery, and Prins Eugen’s Waldemarsudde.

It is easy to misunderstand the Varberg School as a school in the literal sense, with students, teachers, and premises. That was not the case. The word “school” is used here in the same way as when speaking of the Barbizon School or the Düsseldorf School: a group of artists who lived in the same place for a period, shared ideas, and developed a common visual language. In Varberg’s case, the group was very small—three painters and their families—but its influence was great, since the three were among the most influential figures in Swedish art of the 1890s.

What unites the works from Varberg is a shift from depicting to interpreting. In the 1880s, Swedish artists in France had learned the ideals of Naturalism and plein-air painting: paint what you see, in the light that actually prevails, with the greatest possible fidelity to reality. In Varberg, these same artists began to simplify instead. Details were removed, contours became clearer, areas of color grew larger and darker, and the landscape came to convey a mood rather than a description. Karl Nordström’s Varberg Fortress from the South from 1894 is a textbook example: Museum Halland describes the painting as almost entirely free of detail, rendered in a dark palette, with the imposing fortress forming a single heavy shape against the sky.

The movement is thus a link between two larger currents. Looking back, it points to Naturalism and plein-air painting in Grez-sur-Loing; looking forward, to the more symbolic and nationally colored art usually known as the National Romanticism of the 1890s, which in the Nordic countries is also associated with Symbolism. Anyone seeking to understand how Swedish art moved from bright French plein-air scenes to the dark, lyrical twilight landscapes around the turn of the century needs to understand what happened in Varberg.

From Grez-sur-Loing to the Halland Coast – The Story

The Study Years in Stockholm and Paris

The three artists met as young men in Stockholm in the mid-1870s, around the time of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Edvard Perséus’s private painting school. Nils Kreuger, born on October 11, 1858, in Kalmar to a shipowner, began studying at the Academy in 1874 and then attended Perséus’s school in 1878. Richard Bergh, born on December 28, 1858, in Stockholm to the landscape painter and professor Edvard Bergh, studied at the Academy from 1878 to 1881. Karl Nordström, born on July 11, 1855, on Tjörn in Bohuslän, studied at the Academy’s preparatory school.

In the early 1880s, all three traveled to Paris, as did most ambitious Nordic painters of their generation. Bergh and Kreuger studied under Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Colarossi in 1881. Kreuger made his debut at the Paris Salon in 1882 and Bergh in 1883. In France, Nordström painted in a bright, Impressionist style, influenced by both the Impressionists and the Barbizon painters. They spent their summers in the Nordic artists’ colony in Grez-sur-Loing, a village on the Loing River about 50 miles south of Paris, where Carl Larsson, Ernst Josephson and many other Swedes also painted outdoor scenes of the village’s bridges, gardens and fields.

The Opponents and the Artists’ Association

In 1885, the three signed a petition protesting the teaching and exhibition policies of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, which made the artists known as the Opponents – more than 80 artists supported their demands. The following year, the Artists’ Association was founded, with Bergh as secretary and Nordström later as chairman. From 1890 to 1908, the association ran its own painting school, the Artists’ Association School, where Nordström taught and where Tor Bjurström was among the students. Read more about the protest on our page about the Opponents and the Artists’ Association, and about Ernst Josephson, who was close to Bergh in Grez in 1885.

Why Varberg?

Nils Kreuger was the first to arrive. He had married Bertha von Essen in 1886 and lived in Bourg-la-Reine outside Paris, but in 1887 he returned to Sweden and chose to settle in Varberg with his family. The town was a lively seaside resort and spa, but also a place of dramatic natural beauty: the medieval fortress on the rocky coast, the flat coastal meadows, the heather moorland and the low stone walls. In the summer of 1892, the Nordström family began renting a summer home in Apelviken south of town.

In the autumn of 1893, both Nordström and Bergh moved to Varberg with their families. Nordström arrived with his wife Tekla, herself a painter and graphic artist, and three young children; Bergh came with his second wife Gerda and three children. According to Museum Halland, Bergh was seeking peace and quiet so he could finish several large paintings. Around the same time, Prince Eugen, himself a painter and a close friend of the group, wrote a letter in which he called the colony “l’école de Varbère” – the Varberg School. The name stuck.

Three Years of Intense Work and the Breakup in 1896

From 1893 to 1896, the three families lived close to one another, sharing meals, studios and conversations, and receiving visits from several of the leading figures of the day. Museum Halland names Karin and Carl Larsson, Emma and Anders Zorn, and Hanna and Georg Pauli among the guests. In 1896, all three left Varberg and moved to Stockholm, where they continued to shape Swedish art life. That same year, Nordström became chairman of the Artists' Association, a position he held until 1920. Bergh was appointed superintendent of the Nationalmuseum in 1915. Kreuger stayed in Stockholm but often returned to Varberg in the summers and later painted extensively on Öland.

The Artists and Their Most Important Works

The Varberg School comprised three very different temperaments. Nordström was the rugged landscape painter from Bohuslän, Bergh the intellectual and portrait painter with Symbolist ambitions, and Kreuger the lyrical depicter of animals, light and weather. Together they covered a range from the monumental fortress painting to the intimate coastal meadow.

Karl Nordström – Varberg Fortress from the South (1894)

Karl Nordström (1855–1923) is the one of the three whose Varberg paintings today most often represent the entire school. He painted the fortress time and again, from different angles and in different light. In Varberg Fortress from the South from 1894, he has almost entirely stripped away the details: the castle lies like a dark, unified mass above the quarry that was then located south of the fortress, while the sky and ground are reduced to broad fields of color. Museum Halland describes how, after returning to Sweden, Nordström was drawn to Synthetism, inspired both by the bare landscapes of his childhood on Tjörn and by Paul Gauguin's painting. Bukowskis puts it this way: his color shifted from French Impressionism to something “more Nordic and austere.”

Another well-known work from this period is The Neighboring Farms, named after the farms surrounding the summer residence in Apelviken. Here we see the same simplification, but in a brighter summer setting: the houses, stone walls and fields become rhythmic forms in a tranquil landscape. Today, Nordström is represented in collections including the Nationalmuseum, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, the Malmö Art Museum, the Thiel Gallery, Prince Eugen's Waldemarsudde and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. At auction, his landscapes have reached six-figure sums; at Bukowskis, for example, Sunset, Bohuslän sold for SEK 300,000 and the Halland subject Dusk, the Halland Coast for SEK 175,000.

Richard Bergh – The Knight and the Maiden (1897) and Vision, Visby (1894)

Richard Bergh (1858–1919) used his years in Varberg for his most ambitious Symbolist projects. The principal work from this period is The Knight and the Maiden, a life-size oil painting that he worked on in his studio in Varberg and completed in 1897. The painting is full of symbols of life and death, and Museum Halland reports that locals, his wife Gerda and Karl Nordström all served as models. The painting is reportedly now part of the Thiel Gallery’s collection in Stockholm. From the same period comes Vision, Motif from Visby (1894), in which the medieval town becomes a dream image rather than a topographical view.

At the same time, Bergh painted small, quiet landscapes. Coastal Meadow, Halland from 1893 captures the light over the flat coastal meadows with a few broad brushstrokes. The lyrical tone from Varberg led to his best-known painting, Nordic Summer Evening (1899–1900) at the Gothenburg Museum of Art, which we describe in detail on the page about Richard Bergh. In 1896, he formulated the concept of mood painting in an essay, which became the manifesto of an entire generation.

"the school of Varberg" – Prince Eugen in a letter to Richard Bergh in the autumn of 1893, quoted by Museum Halland

Nils Kreuger – October Evening at Apelviken and the Animal Paintings

Nils Kreuger (1858–1930) was the one who stayed longest in Varberg and the one who most clearly retained a connection with Impressionism’s bright colors. According to Museum Halland, his first Varberg paintings are Impressionist studies of the town, the sea and the countryside. Over time, the outlines became stronger and the compositions more decorative, and he became best known for landscapes with animals: horses in coastal meadows, cows in pastureland and livestock beneath heavy skies. Works such as October Evening at Apelviken show how he combined twilight, low horizons and strong silhouettes.

Kreuger was also influenced by Vincent van Gogh, whose works were shown in Copenhagen in 1893, and in some later Öland paintings from around 1905 he approaches the dot technique of Pointillism. After moving to Stockholm in 1896, he painted, among other works, murals for Engelbrekt School in 1904–1905 and the humorous series Historical Reverses. His work is represented at the Nationalmuseum, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Thiel Gallery and Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde.

Prince Eugen and the visitors

Prince Eugen (1865-1947) never lived in Varberg, but he was the group’s closest friend and patron. As early as the 1889 Paris World’s Fair, he had bought a painting by Nordström, and his own tranquil landscapes from the 1890s share much of the Varberg School’s tone. Read more on the page about Prince Eugen and Waldemarsudde. The guests Carl Larsson and Anders Zorn, in turn, brought impressions from Varberg to Sundborn and Mora.

Style and technique - Synthetism and atmospheric painting

The Varberg School’s visual language rests on two concepts that are often confused but mean different things: Synthetism, which concerns form, and atmospheric painting, which concerns content and feeling.

Synthetism - simplifying to intensify

Synthetism was developed in the late 1880s by Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard and their circle in Pont-Aven, Brittany. The idea was to paint from memory rather than directly from nature, to “synthesize” impressions into large, enclosed areas of color with clear outlines, and to let form and color convey emotional and symbolic meaning. Influences came partly from Japanese woodblock prints, which we describe on the page about Japonism, and from medieval stained glass. Bukowskis summarizes that the three “drew inspiration from Synthetism,” and according to several sources, Bergh was the one most strongly drawn to Gauguin’s work.

In practice, Synthetism can be seen in the Varberg paintings through several recurring techniques: a high or very low horizon, a few large forms, dark outlines around the fortress, houses or animals, a limited palette of blue-gray, ochre, moss green and deep violet, and an almost graphic way of positioning the subject in the picture. The light is often that of dusk or evening, when colors become saturated and details disappear on their own.

Atmospheric painting - the landscape as a state of mind

Atmospheric painting is the Swedish version of European Symbolist landscape art. In his 1896 essay, Bergh described how painters should no longer depict nature as a scientific observation, but instead select and intensify the features that evoke a particular feeling in the viewer - melancholy, stillness, anticipation or longing. The landscape becomes a mirror of the soul. The same idea later informed Eugène Jansson’s blue Stockholm nights, Gustaf Fjæstad’s hoarfrost scenes in Rackstad, and Harald Sohlberg’s Norwegian winter nights.

Materials and working methods

The group mainly painted in oil on canvas, but also used watercolour, gouache, pastel and drawing, especially for sketches made outdoors. Unlike the plein-air painting of the 1880s, when the entire painting was ideally completed on site, they often made quick studies outdoors and finished the larger canvases in the studio. This allowed for the very simplification and recomposition that Synthetism required. Bergh used local people and family members as models, and several of the major Symbolist works took shape over several years through sketches – one sketch for The Knight and the Maiden is dated 1894.

Legacy, influence and where to see the works today

The Varberg School lasted only three years, but its importance to Swedish art is hard to overstate. When the three artists moved to Stockholm in 1896, they brought with them a new way of seeing the landscape, which spread to the next generation through the Artists’ Association, its exhibitions and its school. The evocative landscape became one of the most characteristic Swedish expressions of the 1890s, and the tradition continued with the Rackstad Colony in Värmland, Eugène Jansson and Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde. Read more about the broader Nordic development on our overview page about Nordic art.

National Romanticism and the 1890s

Around 1890, Swedish artists and writers began searching for what was specifically Nordic: the light, nature, folk culture and history. The Varberg School’s dark fortress paintings and stark Halland meadows became important contributions to what was later called the national romanticism of the 1890s. At the same time, it is worth noting that the influences were international. French ideas – Gauguin’s Synthetism and European Symbolism – gave Swedish painters the tools to portray their own country in a new way.

Where can you see the Varberg School today?

The largest collection of the group’s work is in Gothenburg, where the Gothenburg Museum of Art opened a new presentation of the Varberg School in its collection galleries in 2024. Bergh’s Nordic Summer Evening is also on display there. In Stockholm, works by all three can be seen at the Nationalmuseum, the Thiel Gallery and Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde. In Varberg, Museum Halland – the Halland Museum of Cultural History at Varberg Fortress – has presented an exhibition about the artists’ colony, featuring, among other works, Nordström’s Varberg Fortress from the South and Bergh’s Beach Meadow, Halland. Those who want to explore further can read Bengt-Arne Person’s 1993 book The Varberg School, still considered the standard work, or start with the article on the Varberg School on Swedish Wikipedia.

The market for the Varberg painters

Karl Nordström is particularly sought-after in the Swedish auction market. According to Bukowskis, his landscapes have sold for between around 120,000 and 300,000 kronor, and works depicting Halland and Bohuslän are among the most sought-after. Kreuger’s animal paintings and Bergh’s smaller landscapes often sell in a lower price range, making art from the Varberg School relatively accessible to collectors compared with, for example, Zorn and Carl Larsson.

The Varberg School at home – an interior design guide

The Varberg School’s paintings have a rare quality: they are tranquil without being dull. The dark areas of color and simple forms create a sense of calm, while the twilight light adds depth and warmth. This makes the subjects from the Halland coast suitable for rooms where you want to unwind, especially during the darker months of the year. In our guide to posters to brighten the dark autumn months, we explain how muted evening scenes can make November and December feel cozier.

Colors and materials that work well

The palette in the Varberg paintings – blue-gray, ochre, moss green, muted violet and evening pink – works well with natural materials such as oak, linen, wool and limewash. Consider choosing a frame in dark oak, black or patinated brass; the dark tones in the painting are enhanced by a dark frame, while a light oak frame brings out the light in the sky. Our article on the psychology of frames explains how frame color affects the impression of a subject, and in Bozetto’s frame collection you’ll find frames in several types of wood and sizes. A wide white mat gives the tranquil landscapes more breathing room; read more in our guide to mats for posters.

Placement and size

A horizontal landscape in 50×70 or 70×100 centimeters is a classic choice above a sofa or bed, where the low horizon in the Varberg paintings extends the room’s lines. Consider pairing it with one or two smaller pieces in the same tonal palette, such as a botanical print or a serene beach scene. Our guide to posters above the sofa shows proportions and spacing that work well. If you hang several pictures, let the darkest one anchor the group at the bottom or on the left.

Tip: The Varberg School’s twilight scenes look their best in warm, indirect light. Place a dimmable floor or table lamp at an angle in front of the artwork and avoid strong spotlights that create reflections on the glass. Try pairing a coastal landscape from our Swedish art collection with a nature scene from our nature collection in the same blue-green palette – this gives the room a cohesive Nordic feel reminiscent of the Halland coast on an October evening.

Timeline of the Varberg School

1855 – Karl Nordström is born on July 11 on Tjörn in Bohuslän.

1858 – Nils Kreuger is born on October 11 in Kalmar, and Richard Bergh on December 28 in Stockholm.

1874–1881 – The three study in Stockholm at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and with Edvard Perséus.

1881–1884 – Studies in Paris, including at the Académie Colarossi; summers in Grez-sur-Loing.

1885 – The Opponents’ petition against the Royal Academy of Fine Arts; Bergh arrives in Grez with Ernst Josephson.

1886 – The Artists’ Association is founded, with Bergh as secretary.

1887 – Nils Kreuger settles in Varberg with his family.

1889 – Prince Eugen buys a painting by Nordström at the World’s Fair in Paris.

1890 – The Artists’ Association’s school opens and operates until 1908.

1892 – The Nordström family begins spending summers in Apelviken, south of Varberg.

1893 – Nordström and Bergh move to Varberg; Bergh paints Beach Meadow, Halland; Prince Eugen coins the name “l’école de Varbère”.

1894 – Nordström paints Varberg Fortress from the south; Bergh paints Vision, a motif from Visby.

1896 – Bergh publishes the essay on mood painting; the group moves to Stockholm; Nordström becomes chairman of the Artists’ Association.

1897 – Bergh completes The Knight and the Maiden.

1899–1900 – Bergh paints Nordic Summer Evening, now at the Gothenburg Museum of Art.

1915 – Bergh is appointed Superintendent of the Nationalmuseum.

1919 – Richard Bergh dies on January 29 in Stockholm.

1923 – Karl Nordström dies on August 16 at Drottningholm.

1930 – Nils Kreuger dies on May 11 in Stockholm.

2024 – Gothenburg Museum of Art opens a new presentation of the Varberg School.

Related artists and movements

The Varberg School is closely connected to several other pages in Bozetto’s knowledge base. Start with Richard Bergh, the group’s theorist, and Karl Nordström, the group’s landscape master, as well as the Opponents and the Artists’ Association, which explains the political background of the art world. The movement’s French roots are described on the pages about Naturalism and Grez-sur-Loing and Paul Gauguin and Synthetism. Its legacy continued with National Romanticism, the Rackstad Colony, Eugène Jansson, and Prince Eugen. Visitors Anders Zorn and Carl Larsson have their own fact pages, as does Symbolism more broadly. For an overview of all periods, see art history – periods and movements, or browse all the artists and movements in Bozetto’s knowledge base.

Frequently asked questions about the Varberg School

Would you like to bring the Nordic atmosphere home? Discover art by famous artists and our collection of Swedish art, featuring landscapes, coastal scenes and classics from the golden age of the 1890s - motifs that evoke the same tranquility as the Halland coast on an evening in Varberg.