Amalia Lindegren

One of Sweden's first women students at the Academy.

Amalia Lindegren studied in Paris and Düsseldorf and painted genre scenes of peasant life. She became a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1856.

Amalia Lindegren was born in Stockholm in 1814. She showed an early talent for drawing, but there were few opportunities for women to train as artists. She took lessons from various teachers in Stockholm and became one of the first women allowed to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, though only as an extra student with limited rights.

With the help of scholarships she went to Paris around 1850 and studied there, including in a studio for women. She then went on to Düsseldorf, Munich and Rome. In Düsseldorf she encountered popular genre painting, with narrative scenes from everyday life, which she brought home with her.

In 1856 she was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. She became one of the most admired Swedish genre painters of her time. She painted peasant life, children and families, often in a sentimental tone. Sunday Evening in a Dalecarlian Cottage (1860) in the Nationalmuseum is a well-known example, with a family from Dalarna gathered in their cottage. She also painted many portraits, including members of the royal family.

Lindegren never married and supported herself by her art. She died in Stockholm in 1891. Her style was typical of the Düsseldorf School and was later considered old-fashioned. Today she is recognised as a pioneer who paved the way for women artists in Sweden.

• Realism
• The Düsseldorf years and academicism