Students, teachers and members of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts during its first 150 years

The project intends to raise a number of topics, such as changes in teaching methods, the role of women, and the influence of the royal family and state.

Particular emphasis will be placed on ideals and practice in the relationship art and architecture versus crafts and technology.

The Academy was founded in 1735 as a school for the teaching of drawing, but it also brought together established artists and architects. Its object was to bring Swedish art closer to European culture – rooted in antiquity, and also to free artists and their patrons from the constraints of the guild system.

The Academy also very much left its mark on art and architecture in a broader perspective: in the public arena, cultural policy, scholarships and, starting in 1784, exhibitions.

The project is concentrating on the period from the founding of the Academy in 1735 up to the 1890s. The aim is for this new research to help create a more comprehensive history of the first 150 years of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.