Northern Lights
23 April 2026 - 21 May 2026
10.45 – 12.45 Thursdays
£83.00 – £345.00
Description
Today the Nordic countries are considered to be politically stable, their populations among the happiest on the planet. This short course will highlight past conflicts and traumatic events, and will follow their search for national identity among one sector of the population – their artists.
“A pure delight! Karin’s thespian skills meant that she transported us to the period making us perfect onlookers of those remarkable times. A triumph”
Course Outline
23 April 2026 – LIONS OF THE NORTH
Here we tell the story of the brief Empire of Sweden; its heroes Gustav 1 Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus and Charles X11; and its unheroic Queen Christina, who turns Catholic, abdicates and goes to live in Rome, to enjoy music, art and friendship with the Pope.
30 April 2026 – BOTANY & MUSIC AT THE COURT OF KING GUSTAV 111 OF SWEDEN
King Gustav 111 (1746-92) patronized Sweden’s “Prince of Botanists” Carl Linnaeus, who had been born towards the end of the Age of Empire: Linnaeus dearly hoped to make his country “Great Again” through the nurture and export of edible plants. King also supported Carl Michael Bellman, much-loved troubadour of the Swedish Rococo; with his poems and songs.
07 May 2026 – A RIGHT ROYAL DANISH DRAMA (NOT HAMLET)
This is the dramatic tale of the arrival of the Enlightenment in absolutist Denmark, too suddenly and too soon; in the person of a German doctor, for whom the tale ends badly. But his idealism sows the seeds of a future Denmark.
14 May 2026 – HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
Hans was not only a great storyteller but an accomplished visual artist. We look at his exquisite papercuts and modernist collages; and discover the origins of some of his Stories.
21 May 2026 – THE BLUE HOUR
This session introduces us to some l9th century Swedish, Norwegian and Danish artists, each in search of a national landscape to rival those of the great Italians and of the French Impressionists.