Målning av Pehr Hilleström, Dalfolk från Mora socken.

Interest in traditional folk costume grew steadily during the Gustavian epoch and is reflected in many of Hilleström´s paintings (nos. 251-255). In 1782, Gustav III personally commissoned the artist to paint <three small pictures of three peasants in their costumes> Hillerström´s pictures of country life also became customs and costume of the agrarian populations. These subjets gained wider currency throuhgt sets of engravings. A large number of Swedish parishes are reprented in Hillerström´s costume pictures, but the main focus of his attention is on the regions most renowned in this respect; Dalarna, Södermanland and Skåne. focus of his attention is on the regions. He also treats Finnish subjects from Savolax and Karelia. It is worth noting how painstakingly Hilleström depicts of while on the other hand the cottage interiors which usually provide the setting for these depictions of country life often consist of more generalised background props having no specific connection with the province concerned. Hilleström can be found using more or less the same cottage interior for pictures from widely separated provinces. Hillerström was the first artist to concern himself with recording the traditional dress of the Swedish (and Finnish) people, which makes his pictures an outstandingly important source material for latterday students of costume history.