In this article, I argue that the historical image of the S & aacute;mi people has not been thoroughly explored in visual culture. By providing a case study examining the motif of the encounter - where S & aacute;mi are portrayed with non-S & aacute;mi groups - I aim to identify overarching themes of how the S & aacute;mi were presented in Nordic visual culture. The study, based on a framework of image studies and the concept of the other, is a result of a survey of all visual art featuring S & aacute;mi imagery during the long nineteenth century at Nationalmuseum, Sweden. In the museum's collection, sixteen works with seven artists portrayed the encounter. These works are displaying themes of the S & aacute;mi as exotified d & eacute;cor of a romanticised north, and that of the S & aacute;mi as being in confrontation with civilisation. The latter could be split into thematic subcategories of religion, social critique, and racial- and colonial ideology.
