After nearly four rewarding years on Flickr Commons with more than 1100 uploaded photographs will the Swedish National Heritage Board now show some samples of another kind of images, in a new picture set called “Drawings, watercolours, prints“.
The Library of the Swedish National Heritage Board (Vitterhetsakademiens bibliotek) and the Board’s public archives hold thousands of drawings, watercolours and prints, some dated back to the 18th century, or even older. Some of these images have been photographed over the years to be displayed in the Board’s photo database online Kulturmiljöbild, and a choice of these will be presented on Flickr Commons, starting today.
The set will include watercolours and coloured prints from the end of the 18th century, showing folkloristic scenes and environments from different parts of Sweden. They are created by the Swedish painters and graphic artists Elias Martin (1739-1818), his brother Johan Fredrik Martin, and others. These images are from the Library’s Rosenhane Collection, derived from the collector Schering Rosenhane (1754-1812).
From the Rosenhane Collection will also appear some images illustrating a naval battle in 1789, south of the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea. They are made by the graphic artist Johan Petter Cumelin (1764-1820).
The archives of the Swedish National Heritage Board will contribute to the set with drawings and watercolours showing medieval ruins and town scenes from Visby (and Hörsne parish) on the island of Gotland on the Swedish east coast. They are from the Collection of drawings, watercolours and prints, and from the Collection of P. A. Säve. They were created during the first half of the 19th century by the architect Jacob Wilhelm Gerss, the land surveyor Lars Cedergren and the scholar Per Arvid Säve.
Some photos of drawings showing a Danish siege in 1502 of the Swedish fortresses of Old Älvsborg and Öresten will also be part of the set. The drawings are made by the German soldier of fortune Paul Dolnstein, who participated in the Danish army at the siege. The original drawings are probably kept in the State Archives of Weimar in Germany.
We hope you’ll enjoy this historical image material – welcome to view and share it on Flickr Commons!
