Hilma af Clint found peace by painting flowers
A trip to Stockholm’s museums will introduce you to the most sought-after souvenirs – reproductions of works by Hilma af Clint. Her art is filled with peculiar geometric flowers, compositions of circles, ovals, lines, and spirals, and a vibrant palette that captures abstract concepts. Among her most famous pieces are her swan images, a symbol in alchemy representing the “greatness of the spirit” and the necessary union of opposites to create the philosopher’s stone, believed to have the power to convert base metals into gold. Through this exquisite series, Af Clint guides us in deciphering the visual geometric language she used to depict the unseen forces of the inner and outer worlds, as well as the plant kingdom.
The power, spirituality, and expressiveness of Hilma af Clint’s works are unparalleled. Although her contemporaries – during a time when she was a highly sought-after painter – favored her portraits and landscapes over her geometric compositions, the art world eventually recognized her genius. Her lifelong spiritual expression through art is encapsulated in series like “Paintings for the Temple”, a nine-year project split into two phases, comprising 193 paintings. Her works can be interpreted both philosophically and scientifically, as they explore the creation, structure, and forces of the universe.
The exhibition “Hilma af Clint: What’s Behind the Flowers” delves into her deep understanding of plant life, presenting a fresh perspective on the accomplishments of this trailblazing artist.
Af Clint passed away in a car accident in 1944, leaving all her paintings to her nephew in her will, with the stipulation that her work remain concealed for at least 20 years after her death. She believed the world was not prepared for her art. When her works were finally revealed in the late 1960s, few could predict the impact they would have.
When she was unable to donate her extensive collection of over 1,200 pieces to the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, her nephew established a foundation in her honor in the 1970s. A few years later, art historian Åke Fant introduced her work to a global audience, who were astounded by the timeline of her creations.
It’s no coincidence that in the autumn of 2018, the Guggenheim Museum in New York’s exhibition, “Hilma af Clint: Painting for the Future,” became the most attended in the institution’s history.
Enchantment and Enigma of the Plant World
She described nature in a poetic manner, saying, “One must envision the domain of natural spirits as a realm of thought; these entities hover around us, sometimes like turbulent winds, sometimes like a gentle summer breeze.” She believed that “if we could perceive all the nuances of the floral world, it would be incredibly intriguing for the future.”
Her connection with nature and the plant world, her skill in depicting all types of fungi found in the Swedish wilderness, as well as ears of corn, watercress, and violets in delicate botanical drawings — a stark contrast to the precise and detailed drawings by European naturalists of earlier centuries — are on display until September 27, 2025. The exhibition, “Hilma af Clint: What’s Behind the Flowers,” is currently being held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
The exhibition showcases her deep understanding of plant life and provides a fresh perspective on the accomplishments of this trailblazing artist.
In January 1917, at the age of 55, Hilma af Clint proclaimed a fresh direction in her art. “How do I initiate my work, how do I muster the courage to undertake such a monumental task as to attempt to explain the ‘vegetation’ of the earth?” she pondered.
She had spent the previous decade crafting an ambitious cycle of paintings, pulsating with organic and geometric forms – some of the earliest forays into abstraction. Her approach to these works was driven by her spiritual explorations. However, she began to feel like “a vessel filled from above and constantly overflowing”. Opting instead to “fill the pot through personal study”, she shifted her focus to the natural world.
These explorations culminated in “Nature Studies”, a set of forty-six drawings that merge traditional depictions of flowering plants with cryptic abstract diagrams. With her keen eye and meticulous observation of her environment, she realized that they were deeply connected to spiritual revelations and endeavored “to explain what lies behind the flowers,” believing that “when we direct our gaze towards the plant kingdom, it provides insights into the structure of our own existence.” The resulting watercolors portray more than a hundred flowering plants in exquisite detail.
Nature Studies, created in 1919 and 1920, reveal Hilma af Clint as a discerning naturalist whose comprehensive understanding of the plant world informed her artistic vision. The exhibition introduces the Nature Studies series for the first time.
Linking the Plant World to the Soul
Throughout the spring and summer of 1919 and 1920, amid the meadows and forests near her studio on Munsö Island, a two-hour journey from Stockholm today, she painted flowers almost daily. The resulting works reflect her extensive knowledge of plants, gained from both her formal and informal education in botany and her experience as a scientific illustrator. Her subjects were primarily common wildflowers or weeds, with only a handful of cultivated flowers. She portrays the first bloom as a symbol of new beginnings in nature and its role in the ecosystem’s life cycle.
She observed the natural world with great attention, as she had done for her botanical drawings in the 1890s, but with a fresh analytical approach. Rather than concentrating solely on the physical attributes of plants and small creatures, she strived to capture their vital force and spiritual energy in her notes and drawings. Hilma af Clint, with her deep family ties to mathematics and her keen observation of nature, revolutionized traditional botanical art. She exquisitely painted flowers and juxtaposed them with precise diagrams, creating an intriguing blend of art and science. Her works feature blooming sunflowers with nested circles, calendulas paired with spirals, and clusters of buds on branches set against a backdrop of dotted checkerboards and brushstrokes. This unique combination of forms extends her well-known abstract language, allowing her to visualize “what lies behind the flowers”. Her belief was that meticulous observation of the environment could reveal hidden aspects of human existence.
Hilma af Clint envisioned her work as a “Flora” – a comprehensive atlas of the plants of Sweden, where she lived and worked. Her drawings map the natural world in spiritual terms, standing on par with any scientific source. By intertwining representation and abstraction, careful observation and visualization, art and botany, her works acknowledge the interconnectedness of all living things and highlight the spiritual dimension of nature.
Her approach is almost revolutionary, transcending traditional botanical illustrations by merging two radically different methods. She juxtaposes her vibrant flowers with abstract diagrams, referred to as “riktlinier” in Swedish, meaning instructions or directions. Each piece expresses a human condition or a state of consciousness that emerges from her detailed observation of plant subjects. Accompanying her drawings are brief descriptions, initially written on a loose sheet of paper and later compiled in a series of notebooks. Some of her illustrations capture the essence of a flower, from its vibrant color and the shape of its petals, stem, leaves, and roots, to the intricate details of its growth and reproduction.
Her body of work, which had previously encompassed meticulous scientific illustrations, evocative landscape depictions, and a unique exploration of abstraction, is now further enriched by her portrayal of nature’s fundamental elements. These elements are deeply intertwined with the structure and energy of an individual’s moral condition.
Speaking about her series of abstract works, she stated, “the center of the universe consists of innocence”. In this series, she presents the innate pleasure we derive from tuning into nature’s rhythm and “listening” to the wisdom imparted by plants and their life cycles.
Exploring the Fascinating Artistic Journey of Hilma af Clint
Hilma af Clint, born in Stockholm in 1862, was a distinguished alumna of the city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with honors in 1887. She made a name for herself in Stockholm’s art scene, showcasing representational paintings, and served as the secretary of the Swedish Association of Women Artists. From a young age, she was deeply interested in spiritualism, which later evolved into a fascination with Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and Anthroposophy. These spiritual pursuits were in vogue across Europe, particularly among artists and literary figures, as people grappled with reconciling their religious beliefs with scientific advancements and the burgeoning awareness of diverse religions.
Though af Clint’s conventional paintings provided her with a livelihood, her abstract works, which she referred to as her “great work”, remained a somewhat overlooked aspect of her artistic endeavors. Only a handful of her intellectual peers were aware of this body of work. Her attempts to share these paintings with like-minded individuals were largely unsuccessful. Her diary entries hint at her belief that people were not quite prepared to grasp the message these paintings were meant to convey.
While studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, she and four other women established a group known as “The Five”. This group delved into spiritual dimensions through meditation and sessions where they documented messages from higher spirits, referred to as High Masters. They believed that by entering a trance-like state, they could communicate with mystical entities and transcribe their messages through automatic writing and drawing. Following the disbandment of her group, Hilma af Clint turned her attention solely to her “Temple Paintings,” which is considered her most significant collection. She maintained relationships with various intellectual movements and was an active participant in the Anthroposophical Society. Throughout her life, her traditional paintings were frequently showcased in exhibitions, while her abstract pieces were only exhibited among circles with anthroposophical and theosophical interests.
It wasn’t until over four decades after her death that her work began to gain international recognition. This came about when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) featured her in the 1986 exhibition, “The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985.” This exhibition served as the launching pad for her posthumous global acclaim.
