Childhood, The Ten Largest, No 1-2, Group IV, 1907

Hilma af Klint

Narrator: The first paintings have a blue background and represent Childhood. The duality of the male and female principles, respectively symbolised by the rose and the lily in Hilma af Klint’s work, is already presented in the very first picture. In the middle of the painting there is a circle containing two grains of wheat or egg shapes. The letters “a” and “v” represent the words vestal and ascetic. The Vestal Virgins were the priestesses of the goddess Vesta in Antique Rome, whose task it was to guard the holy fire. Ascetics are people who try to liberate themselves from their physical desires in order to achieve enlightenment. In Hilma af Klint’s work, asceticism is linked to the colour yellow and the male principle, while the Vestal Virgins are connected to the colour blue and the female principle. In the second painting, the large circles in orange and blue have a similar symbolic function