August Strindberg was a painter – and not merely a writer who occasionally picked up a brush. Around 120 paintings are known today, above all landscapes with sea, rocks, heavy skies, and strange horizons. He lacked formal artistic training, often worked with a palette knife, and used painting intensely during three periods: in the 1870s, at the beginning of the 1890s, and around the start of the 20th century. His major breakthrough as a visual artist came only long after his death in 1912. Today, it is easy to understand the interest. The paintings feel less like views of a specific place and more like weather inside a human being.
Strindberg beyond literature
It is almost impossible to write about August Strindberg without first moving the writer aside. The Red Room, the plays, and the public persona take up a great deal of space. But Strindberg painted repeatedly throughout his life, especially when the writing came slowly or when he found himself in periods of profound reassessment.
The Strindberg Museum divides his painting into three main periods. The attempts of the 1870s are early and exploratory. Around 1892, he found a more distinctive style, and 1893–94 is usually described as a high point. In the early 1900s, he returned to painting with partly more decorative traits.
The sea as an inner landscape
The Stockholm archipelago became an important source of inspiration, but anyone who uses his paintings as geographical documents will be disappointed. Strindberg was not especially interested in rendering a coastline accurately. He was after the mood: the pressure of a bank of clouds, a pale light over the water, a rock that looks almost threatening.
Nationalmuseum describes how Strindberg himself saw himself as a Symbolist painter and how the scenes could reflect emotional states. This is clearly evident in The Town from 1903. A town lies far away on the other side of dark water. The way there feels greater than the place itself.
Palette knife, fingers, and paintings without politeness
Strindberg often worked with a palette knife. The paint may lie thickly, be scraped away, or be drawn across the surface so that sky and water become matter rather than illusion. He also used his fingers and sometimes a brush, despite the myth that the brush was supposedly superfluous to him.
Much of the polished finish that his contemporaries expected is absent. Precisely for that reason, the pictures can feel surprisingly close to later Expressionist painting. That does not mean that Strindberg “was an Expressionist” in any simple sense, but his free technique allowed posterity to read him in a new way.
The materials were sometimes as unconventional as the technique. He did not always paint on a traditionally stretched canvas, but could use cardboard, boards, and other rigid supports. This gives the works varied formats and a physical directness.
Four worlds of motifs to look for
The storm
Foaming seas, dark clouds, and horizons almost broken by the weather. Here, nature is not romantic decoration but force.
In Storm in the Skerries from 1892, the sea becomes almost abstract in blue-grey tones. The Lighthouse from 1901 is more restrained, but has the same feeling of a solitary marker out in the weather.
The still water
Not all the paintings are dramatic. Coastal Landscape II from 1903 shows calmer water, yet the desolation remains. The stillness becomes almost more unsettling than the storm.
The solitary rock
Rocks and skerries recur as fixed forms against water and sky. They give the compositions a simple gravity and often serve as the psychological center of the image.
The distant city
In The City, civilization becomes something one can see but never quite reach. It is Strindberg in essence: a concrete view that is at the same time a mental state.
Wonderland and the role of chance
In the painting Wonderland from 1894, the palette is warmer and the surface almost mineral-like. Strindberg himself wrote about how chance could influence the creative process: a form emerged in the paint and guided the work onward. The idea is close to his later experiments in photography and natural science, where he was keen to test what might happen when control was not total.
There is something liberating in that. Painting became a place where he did not need to formulate arguments in words. The material itself was allowed to respond.
Why recognition came late
During Strindberg’s lifetime, his painting was debated and stood in the shadow of his literature. Real interest only gathered momentum after the Second World War, and especially during the 1960s. Then people began to see qualities that his contemporaries had struggled with: the raw surface, the simplified motifs, and the psychological charge.
This late recognition also makes the paintings feel strangely free from any established “Strindberg style.” He never worked like an artist who needed to deliver the same kind of image year after year.
How Strindberg works on a modern wall
The dark seascapes work well on a larger scale than one might first think. A 50×70 or 70×100 can serve as an anchor in a bright room. A dark wood or black frame heightens the drama; oak softens it.
On a gallery wall, Strindberg sits beautifully beside maritime photographs, nautical charts, or a lighter Swedish watercolor. Preferably avoid making everything dark. The contrast is what makes his weather felt.
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Frequently asked questions about August Strindberg as a painter
Did August Strindberg really paint?
Yes. Around 120 paintings are known. He painted during several periods of his life, with an emphasis on landscapes and seascapes.
What characterizes Strindberg’s painting?
Dramatic skies, seas, solitary rocks, simplified compositions, and a physical technique in which the palette knife often plays a major role.
Did he have artistic training?
No, not formal training as a painter. He did, however, move in artistic circles and followed the art debates of his time very closely.
When were his paintings recognized?
Broader art-historical recognition came long after his death, with a clearly increased interest during the 1960s.