The prince, the altarpiece, and the church—an afternoon of lectures and discussions

13:00 Introduction by Maria Lind, Director at Kin

13:15 About Kiruna Church, its importance for Kiruna and the friendship between Hjalmar Lundbohm and Prince Eugen: Lecture by Curt Persson.

Curt Persson is a writer, educator and PhD in History. He works as a Senior Lecturer at Julevu (Luleå) University of Technology,
and was previously director of Norrbotten County Museum. Curt Persson has done historical studies for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the minority Tornedalians, Kvens and Lantalaiset. He is the author of the book Hjalmar Lundbohm : ledare, samhällsbyggare och kulturmecenat (2018).

14:00 The landscape painter Prince Eugen and the altarpiece in Kiruna: lecture by Karin Sidén, Director of Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde

Prince Eugen, born Hereditary Prince of Sweden and Norway
on 1 August 1865, was active as an artist in the field of landscape painting and worked as such both nationally and internationally. Eugen was influenced by the artistic movements of the time, including French plein air painting, Symbolism and eventually early Modernism, and in many of his works he endeavoured to convey different feelings and moods in and towards nature. In his monumental works in public buildings, including Stockholm City Hall, the Royal Opera, the Royal Dramatic Theatre, schools such as Norra Latin and Östra Real, and Kiruna Church, he came to relate to the spatial and to strive for concentration and stylisation. Prince Eugen’s ability to draw inspiration from the building elements and materials of the interiors, colours and light in the creation of his monumental works has been noted in art history writing, including by Ragnar Josephson in his influential book
The Birth of the Work of Art from 1940. This lecture analyses Prince Eugen as a landscape painter in relation to his own statements, the art movements of the time and the reception of his works. Special attention is devoted to his landscape depictions in monumental painting, including the unique altarpiece in Kiruna Church, where an animated nature is entirely in focus.

Karin Sidén, PhD, is an associate professor of art history and works as chief curator and museum director at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde in Stockholm. She was previously Head of Research and Chief Curator at the Nationalmuseum and has been a working member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts since 2016. Sidén has published extensively both in book form and with articles in anthologies and exhibition catalogues. Her research has focused
on early modern art as well as late 19th and early 20th century art movements, artists and art life. She has been responsible for a large number of exhibitions on artist colonies, art movements, artists such as Prince Eugen, Carl Fredrik Hill and Ernst Josephson and contemporary artists such as Lena Cronqvist and Cecilia Edefalk.

14:45 Presentation by Matts Leiderstam
Matts Leiderstam talks about his project based on the altarpiece.

15:00 Conversation between Curt Persson, Karin Sidén
and Matts Leiderstam. Moderator Maria Lind, director at Kin

Image: Matts Leiderstam och skissen av altartavlan.
Photographer: Johan Ylitalo.