For centuries, up to the present day, every branch of knowledge continues to build upon its own historical tradition, whether it is medicine, law, science, architecture, philosophy, literature, music or any other – except the visual arts. For close to one hundred years the artistic training offered in nearly every school and university in the world has been profoundly shaped and influenced by modernist thinking and theories, which reject and break with the past. Traditional knowledge and methods of instruction have been generally discontinued or discarded. The result of this trend has been the loss of humanistic values, technical skills and craftsmanship that had been the hallmark of great art for centuries before the shift to modernism. Atelier Stockholm is devoted to preserving, promoting and developing these traditional values and skills for those people who wish to create contemporary work using the rich and complex language of realistic drawing and painting.
The greatest examples of realistic art were produced prior to the advent of modernism. Therefore, Atelier Stockholm uses primarily those traditional, time-tested methods that were used to train the great artists of the past. By doing so, the school is not returning to the past, but rather building upon it

Students of Atelier Stockholm can trace their training in a direct and unbroken line of descent from their instructors (through the lineage of their teachers) as far back as the 14th Century. They have a factual and genuine connection to numerous old masters such as Andrea Del Sarto, Leonardo Da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Jacopo da Pontormo, as well as François Boucher, Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Jean-Leon Gerome, and many other masters (click on the following link for the complete artistic lineage [PDF document]).