"Storm in the Skerries. "The Flying Dutchman"

This is a sombre image of violent forces of nature where the expressive feel is intensified by the fierceness of Strindberg’s spatula work. He found the scene depicted at Dalar� in the Stockholm skerries in the summer of 1892.

Strindberg worked very intuitively, translating his mental state into images with brief, fierce bursts of activity. That is also why he chose small-scale formats; in fact this painting, which Strindberg called The Flying Dutchman as a reference to Richard Wagner’s lonely, ever roaming captain, is one of his largest.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 10 minutes):

Richard Wagner: The Flying Dutchman, Overture