LIFE IN SWEDEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 194, 17 August 1936, Page 3

LIFE IN SWEDEN.

LECTURE AT THE MUSEUM. OBSERVATIONS BY BOTANIST. The Sunday afternoon lectures were continued at the Auckland War Memorial Museum yesterday afternoon when, as the seventh of the series, Miss L. M. Cranwell, botanist at the museum, spoke on life and | art in Sweden. Miss Cranwell recently spent live months in Sweden, working on New Zealand peat problems at the invitation of specialists at the universities at Stockholm and Upsala. Mr. S. Donaldson presided. Miss Cranwell said that the Swedish people were thoroughly modern in thought and deed. Art played a big part- in the lives of the people and they had developed a -style of .their own. In sculpture the great strength of the work impressed and it gave the impression of endurance and beauty, whether the work was in wood, marble or bronze. It was work notable for its flowing lines rather than its sweetness of expression. Statuary was exhibited in the market places, the museums and the public buildings. In modern Sweden the work of Carl Milles held a very prominent place. The speaker said that she saw the private art collection of Prince Eugen and through the hospitality of the Swedish people was able to see much that was characteristic of the country in art. Decorations in the homes were extremely simple and this was also noticeable in regard to the new public buildings. Simplicity of design and nobility of conception was the feature of the Town Hall at Stockholm, and the building was one of the architectural triumphs of the century. There she saw the Nobel feast and prize-giving, when the students of the university sar;g and danced their national dances before visitors from many countries. Miss Cranwell said that she visited the west coast of Sweden and there saw a great deal of the old Viking country, with its ship graves and inscribed stones, many of the latter twelve to eighteen feet high. The speaker commented on the very friendly feeling of the Swedish people to the British people and said that the Swedes were intensely democratic and lovers of freedom. The lecture was extensively illustrated.