In 1896 Cassel and
Hilma af Klint founded the group
De Fem (
The Five).
Sigrid Hedman,
Mathilda Nilsson and
Cornelia Cederberg (sister of Mathilda Nilsson) were the three other members of the group. They began as an ordinary spiritualist group and their paintings took spiritual and ritual themes. The artists in their seances were said to have communicated with spirits through a psychograph, an instrument for recording spirit writings, or a
trance medium. During these events, spirit leaders presented themselves by name and promised to help the group's members in their spiritual training. The spirits communicating with the five women were mostly Gregor, Georg, Clemens, Ananda och Amaliel. Such leaders are common in spiritualist literature and life. Through their spiritual guidance, the group was inspired to draw automatically in pencil, a technique that was not unusual at that time. When the hand moved automatically, the conscious will did not direct the pattern that developed on the paper, and, in theory, the women thus became artistic tools for their spirit leaders. This technique, called
automatism was used a decade later by the
Surrealists. In a series of sketchbooks, religious scenes and symbols were depicted in drawings made by the group collectively. Their drawing technique developed in such a way that abstract patterns—dependent on the free movement of the hand—became visible. The group
De Fem ceased to meet in 1907. Several of its members went over to collaborate with Hilma af Klint for the
Paintings for the Temple. In the new group, Anna Cassel would play a key role, besides Hilma af Klint. Anna Cassel also came to assist Hilma af Klint financially through most part of her life. Among others, she financed the new studio built on the island
Munsö not far from Stockholm, which was inaugurated in 1917. This is where Hilma af Klint's paintings were stored when she died. == References ==