Is Finland Swedish? The role of the Swedish language, Swedishness, and Swedish history in Finnish art historiography

It is possible to address what is ‘Swedish’ about the history of Swedish art history by considering Swedish-language education and research conducted elsewhere, as Fred Andersson does in his essay on art history in Finland. This Nordic country was part of Sweden from the twelfth century until 1809, when it was lost to Russia. As a result of this centuries-long history, Finland has a large Swedish-speaking minority, and the manner in which art history teaching and research developed there is intrinsically connected to the discipline’s history in Sweden. This complicated relationship calls into question ‘Swedishness’ and ‘Finnishness’ per se. (From editors' introduction.)