How to Pair Scandinavian Art Prints: 12 Gallery Wall Combinations That Work
Choosing an art print is often easier than choosing what to hang beside it. Two paintings can both look beautiful on their own and still feel slightly wrong when they share a wall. Their colours may compete, one may be visually much heavier, or the pairing may simply feel accidental.
Fortunately, matching art does not mean finding two almost identical pictures. Some of the most interesting combinations connect through one element: colour, subject, period, atmosphere or place. The rest can be different.
Below are 12 combinations using works from the Hygge by Scandinavia collection. Some are quiet and harmonious; others rely on contrast. Several can also be expanded from two prints into a set of three.
How do you choose art prints that work together?
Colour is often the easiest starting point. Two paintings do not need exactly the same palette, but repeating one or two colours can make very different works feel connected.
Artist or artistic movement gives you another natural link. Works by the same artist are an obvious pairing, especially when they come from the same period or series. Different artists from the same movement can work just as well.
Subject and place can hold a wall together too: forests, winter, interiors, the sea, Skagen, Copenhagen, Norway or Stockholm.
Contrast is often underrated. A quiet interior beside an expressive painting can work precisely because they are different. The important thing is that something still connects them.
1. Quiet Hammershøi: two interiors built around light
Vilhelm Hammershøi – Dust Motes Dancing in Sunbeams
Vilhelm Hammershøi – Interior from the Home of the Artist
Hammershøi is perhaps the easiest Scandinavian artist to pair with himself. His interiors return to pale walls, dark furniture, doors, wooden floors and daylight entering otherwise quiet rooms. That repetition makes two Hammershøi prints feel connected without looking duplicated.
This combination is especially suited to a bedroom, reading corner or living room where the artwork should be present without dominating the space. Light oak frames reinforce the soft Scandinavian character; black frames create considerably more contrast.
Make it three: add Interior. The Music Room. With three Hammershøi interiors, the wall begins to resemble a sequence of rooms rather than three separate pictures.
2. Summer in Skagen
P.S. Krøyer – Hip, Hip, Hurrah!
P.S. Krøyer – Marie Krøyer in the Garden at Skagen
The Skagen painters are famous for light, but their paintings were also about people. Hip, Hip, Hurrah! is social and animated; Marie Krøyer in the Garden is more intimate. The green summer setting connects the works while the difference in activity keeps the pairing from becoming repetitive.
Make it three: add Summer Evening at Skagen Beach. Daylight gives way to the blue evening light associated with Krøyer's Skagen paintings.
3. The blue hour at Skagen
P.S. Krøyer – Summer Evening at Skagen Beach
P.S. Krøyer – Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen Beach
These paintings share a place but not quite the same mood. In Summer Evening, the coast is quiet and restrained. In Midsummer Eve Bonfire, the beach becomes a gathering place filled with people and fire. The cool blues of the Skagen evening provide the connection, while the bonfire introduces a warm focal point.
4. Norwegian Romanticism: fjord and landscape
Adolph Tidemand & Hans Gude – Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord
Hans Gude – By the Mill Pond
Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord became one of the defining images of Norwegian national romanticism. Beside a quieter landscape by Gude, another side of the painter emerges. One image is monumental and symbolic; the other lets landscape carry more of the picture. For a Norwegian-inspired wall, that difference is more interesting than simply choosing two similar fjord views.
5. Norway in three landscapes
Start with Bridal Procession on the Hardangerfjord and Hans Gude – Norwegian Highlands, then add J.C. Dahl's From Stalheim.
The three works connect mountains, valleys, water and dramatic distance while also telling a story about the development of Norwegian landscape painting. This makes the combination particularly meaningful for someone choosing art because of Norwegian heritage rather than colour alone.
6. Nordic forest: reality meets fairy tale
Peder Mørk Mønsted – A Forest Stream
John Bauer – Humpe in the Troll Forest
These pictures should not match, and that is why the pairing works. Mønsted gives us the Scandinavian forest as an observed place: water, stones, moss and vegetation rendered with remarkable attention to detail. Bauer takes us into another version of the same environment, where the forest becomes a boundary between everyday life and folklore.
7. Nordic winter: daylight and moonlight
Peder Mørk Mønsted – A Village in the Snow
Gustaf Fjaestad – Winter Moonlight
Mønsted's snow-covered village remains connected to everyday life. Fjaestad moves closer to atmosphere, allowing snow and moonlight to transform the landscape into patterns of light and shadow. The subject connects them immediately; their treatment of winter separates them.
8. Hilma af Klint: childhood and youth
Hilma af Klint – The Ten Largest No. 1, Childhood
Hilma af Klint – The Ten Largest No. 4, Youth
Pairing Hilma af Klint is different from pairing most historical Scandinavian artists because The Ten Largest was conceived as a series. Created in 1907, the ten works explore four stages of human life: childhood, youth, adulthood and old age. Hung together, the pictures are connected both visually and conceptually.
9. Hilma af Klint: three stages of life
No. 1, Childhood
No. 4, Youth
No. 6, Adulthood
This is where choosing three prints adds something that two cannot: the wall becomes a sequence. Childhood moves into youth and then adulthood. The changing backgrounds, symbols and forms give each print its own identity while the shared visual language keeps the group coherent.
10. Old Scandinavia: pair two historic maps
Abraham Ortelius – Septentrionalium Regionum Descrip. (1575)
William Home Lizars – Scandinavia
Historic maps work particularly well in groups because they combine decorative detail with place and time. Pairing maps from different periods also reveals changing coastlines, place names, borders and cartographic conventions.
Make it personal: choose a third map connected with your own family history or a place that matters to you.
11. Danish Golden Age: clear skies and quiet landscapes
Christen Købke – View of Sortedam Lake
C.W. Eckersberg – The Russian Ship of the Line Asow and a Frigate at Anchor off Elsinore
A Copenhagen lake and a Russian warship might seem an unlikely pair. Look beyond the subjects, however, and the connection becomes clearer. Both belong to the visual world of the Danish Golden Age, where close observation, controlled composition and attention to light could transform apparently ordinary scenes.
12. Nordic blue: Munch and Jansson
Edvard Munch – The Scream
Eugène Jansson – Riddarfjärden, Stockholm
Not every Scandinavian wall needs to be pale and quiet. Munch turns landscape into psychological tension, while Jansson's Stockholm nocturne uses deep blue to make city and water feel almost dreamlike. Both show Scandinavian art moving away from straightforward naturalism towards something more subjective around the end of the 19th century.
Two prints or three?
There is no rule that a gallery wall needs to be large. Two substantial prints can work better than six small ones, particularly above a sofa, bed, sideboard or dining table. Three prints create more possibilities: a horizontal row, a vertical arrangement in a narrow space, or a looser group with one larger work acting as the anchor.
A useful approach is to start with two works you genuinely like and ask what the third should contribute. More colour? A quieter image? A different orientation? The third picture does not have to be the most obvious match.
Building a set of three?
Several combinations above can be expanded into three-print sets. Choose two eligible art prints and get the third at half price. Free shipping is available when your order reaches the threshold shown for your market.
Should all the frames match?
They can, but they do not have to. Matching frames are the simplest solution when the artwork itself is varied. Light oak works especially well with pale landscapes and Hammershøi interiors. Black frames create stronger boundaries and suit colourful abstract art, historic maps and darker works.
If you mix frames, keep at least one element consistent, such as similar wood tones or frame widths.
How much space should you leave between two art prints?
For two or three medium-sized framed prints, approximately 5–10 cm / 2–4 inches between frames is a useful starting point. Closer spacing makes separate pictures read more strongly as one composition; wider spacing gives each work more independence.
Before making holes in the wall, lay the framed works on the floor or mark their outlines with removable painter's tape.
Should gallery wall prints be the same size?
No. Equal sizes create order and work especially well for a series such as Hilma af Klint's The Ten Largest or several Hammershøi interiors. Different sizes create hierarchy, allowing one larger print to become the visual anchor.
Can you mix old maps and paintings?
Absolutely. An old map can make a group of paintings more personal. A Norwegian landscape beside a historical map of the part of Norway your family came from shares geography rather than artistic style. The same approach works with Danish, Swedish and broader Scandinavian maps.
Can you mix modern and traditional Scandinavian art?
Yes, although contrast benefits from some structure. A colourful Hilma af Klint beside a traditional 19th-century landscape can be striking if frames, proportions or the surrounding interior provide visual continuity.
The simplest rule for pairing art
Find one reason for the pictures to belong together. It might be a colour, Norway, winter, an artist, or two different versions of the Scandinavian forest. Once that connection exists, difference becomes useful. A good pair should make you look at each picture again.
Frequently asked questions
Do gallery wall prints have to match?
No. They need a visual or conceptual connection, but they do not need to look alike. Colour, subject, artist, period, geography or matching frames can provide enough continuity.
Is it better to hang two or three art prints together?
Both can work. Two prints create a simple, balanced arrangement. Three allow you to create a stronger narrative or introduce a contrasting work.
Should three art prints be the same size?
Not necessarily. Equal sizes create a formal arrangement. Different sizes can make one picture the focal point and produce a more relaxed gallery-wall effect.
How far apart should two framed prints hang?
Around 5–10 cm / 2–4 inches is a useful starting point for medium-sized prints. Adjust according to the artwork and wall.
Can I combine different Scandinavian artists?
Yes. Connect them through landscape, colour, period, place or atmosphere. Mønsted and Bauer, for example, both explore the Scandinavian forest while representing very different artistic traditions.