Major exhibitions have revealed to a growing public the great and individual achievements of Nordic artists; yet there have been few surveys of the art of the Nordic countries - Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland - during its greatest period. The Danish Golden Age of the 18th century saw the first major flowering of Nordic art with the Danish and Swedish court painters. As the 19th century progressed the focus of development shifted to the Swedish schools and the newly blossoming art of Norway and Finland, which generated nationalistic work with peculiarly Scandinavian strengths. This study sets the discussion of individual artists in each period and country against the contemporary political, social and cultural background.