Mid-19th century. The national awakening has not yet begun on this side of the waters, neither among Estonians nor among Swedes. A middle-aged Baltic-German artist appears in the coastal areas inhabited by Estonian Swedes and draws a multitude of detailed pictures depicting the life, everyday objects, clothing, festivities, and church visits of the local people. Even a piglet gets painted, not to mention the wedding guests of Vormsi island.

The artist is Ernst Hermann Schlichting, and ten drawings depicting the life of coastal Estonian-Swedes are printed in lithography as an appendix to Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Russwurm’s German-language “Eibofolke oder die Schweden an den Küsten Ehstlands und auf Runö” (“Eibofolke or the Swedes on the coasts of Ehstland and on Runö”) in 1854. 161 years later, in 2015, Russwurm’s magnum opus is finally published in Estonian, becoming the most important source for the history research of coastal Estonian Swedes. Schlichting’s ten lithographs are part of the volume.

At the exhibition created for the Noarootsi homeland days in the summer of 2022, these ten pictures are printed on canvas at double of the original size, to further highlight the richness of detail captured from the past times of a small but important Estonian ethnic group.

The exhibition is compiled using the original prints preserved in the National Library of Estonia, some of which were printed in Macdonald’s lithography workshop in Tallinn.

In the photo: E.H. Schlichting’s lithography of folk costumes from Pakri, Kurkse, and Vihterpalu.

Texts: Ivar Rüütli
Scans: National Library of Estonia
Exhibition Project Manager: Piret Miina Roberg

The exhibition was supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment and Lääne-Nigula Municipality.