Style Imitating Art | The Ten Largest, No. 7, Adulthood by Hilma af Klint

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Marsha chose this week’s artwork. Without knowing of this artist or even how she landed on her website, Marsha picked this artist’s work because it is different from anything she has previously chosen.  She was going to choose a piece that had a primarily pink color palette since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. But when she spotted this piece, the colors were so fall like that it made sense for this challenge.

The Artwork

The Ten Largest, No. 7, Adulthood by Hilma af Klint

About the Artist: Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint was born on October 26, 1862, at Karlberg Palace in Solon, Sweden, the fourth child of Mathilda af Klint (née Sonntag) and Swedish naval commander Captain Victor af Klint. During her childhood summers at the family manor, “Hanmora”, on the island of Adelsö in Lake Mälaren, Hilma developed a deep passion for nature and the natural forms which would later inspire her work.

With an early interest in mathematics and botany, Hilma developed a talent for visual art at a young age, eventually studying at the Technical School (now Konstfack) where she learned portraiture and landscape painting. In 1882, at the age of 20, she was admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts where she studied mainly drawing with an emphasis on botanicals as well as portrait and landscape painting. She graduated with honors in 1887 and was awarded a studio scholarship in the “Atelier Building”. Once she began working as an artist in Stockholm, Hilma af Klint quickly began gaining recognition for her landscapes, botanical drawings, and portraits. Her conventional paintings became the main source of her income, but her “life’s work” involved something else entirely.

After the death of her younger sister Hermina in 1880, Hilma became involved in spiritism which led to her interest in symbolism and abstraction. Most of her works were spiritual in nature but Hilma felt that the meanings of the abstractions in her art were so groundbreaking that the world wasn’t ready to see it yet. She therefore wished her work to remain unseen until 20 years after her death.

Hilma along with Anna Cassel, Cornelia Cederberg, Sigrid Hedman, and Mathilda Nilsson, formed “The Five”, a group of female artists who were interested in spiritualism and the paranormal. Through her work with this group, Hilma created experimental automatic drawing as early as 1896. She felt that her hand was guided by outside spiritual forces and she was simply the conduit. She created her first series of abstract paintings in 1906 at the age of 44.

Although Hilma had claimed that she didn’t want her abstract works shown until after her death, some art historians have discovered evidence that she did attempt to show her work during her lifetime with one exhibition reportedly happening at World Conference on Spiritual Science in London in 1928.

After exhibiting her work only a few times at spiritual conferences and gatherings, Hilm

a af Klint died on October 21, 1944, in Djursholm, Sweden, following a traffic accident. She was 81 years old. She never married or had children, lived only with groups of female artists during her adult life, and left no diaries or journals behind to give hints about her personal life.

In her will, Hilma left all of her abstract paintings to her nephew, vice-admiral Erik af Klint of the Royal Swedish Navy, with the specification that all of her works remain secret until 20 years after her death. When the boxes were opened in the late 1960s, no one was prepared for what they would find. The collection contained more than 1200 abstract pieces and is currently owned and managed by the Hilma af Klint Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden.

About the Artwork: The Ten Largest, No. 7, Adulthood

In September 1907, Hilma af Klint made a note describing a vision that foretold “ten paradisaically beautiful paintings” that were to be executed which would “give the world a glimpse” of the stages of life. That October, she began working on her series The Ten Largest. These predominantly abstract works of monumental proportions represent four stages of human development…childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age.

The collection is filled with botanical references which are meant to convey Hilma’s view of the connection between humanity and the natural world. The works are also sprinkled with words in looping text that were either invented by the artist or received from her spirit guides.

The artist claimed that her spirit guides instructed the process of these works and also requested that Cornelia Cederberg, one of “The Five”, assist in their creation under Hilma’s direction. Each painting took about 4 days to complete. Due to their very substantial size, the works were most likely painted on a studio floor rather than on a conventional easel. She had intended the paintings to be displayed together in a spiral temple to create a giant beautiful wall covering.

Marsha chose the seventh painting in the series for our style inspiration. No. 7 represents the adulthood stage of life. It measures 328 cm (10.7 ft) by 240 cm (7.9 ft) and is painted with oils and tempera on paper. You can get a better idea of the massive proportions of these paintings here.

Helpful Links:

• Wikipedia: Hilma af Klint
• Wikimedia Commons: Hilma af Klint – The Ten Largest No. 7 – Adulthood – 1907
• The Hilma af Klint Foundation
• Art Gallery of NSW: Hilma af Klint-Discover the visionary artist disrupting art history-The Ten Largest
• Daily Art: Masterpiece Story: The Ten Largest by Hilma af Klint

About My Outfit

When Marsha emailed us her choice of artwork for this round, I was in the process of writing a post about making this summer dress work for early fall. I quickly recognized that the print and colors on the dress were remarkably well suited to satisfy this style challenge. Had I not already had that post nearly completed, I may have reserved that outfit to complete this challenge…as one of those serendipitous SIA outfits that happen every once in a while.

Instead, I chose to restyle the dress with my bright yellow kimono robe rather than the burnt orange one I wore with it last week. Since the artwork has both yellow and orange, either robe would work but the yellow is a more dominant color in the painting. I wanted to keep some orange in the outfit as well so I wore my trusty rusty colored felt hat.

While the print and colors on my dress captured most of the colors in the painting, I was missing green so I incorporated tiny bits of green with my crocheted sunflower earrings and my pumpkin necklace. I also chose the pumpkin necklace because the central yellow form in the artwork resembles a distorted pumpkin. I tend to wear flat comfortable shoes all the time these days but I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone in a pair of tan platform sandals. I really like how the yellow robe and different accessories showcase the versatility of this fun dress.

I hope you all enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. Be sure to check out how Marsha and Salazar have styled their outfits inspired by this painting. If you want to play along and create your own art inspired outfit, please submit your photos to Marsha (mlrbanks57@gmail.com) by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, and she will feature your outfit in her style gallery on Wednesday, October 8, 2025.

Until then, happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee