Swedish women artists

Among the best-known Swedish women artists are Hilma af Klint, who painted abstractly as early as 1906, the Expressionist Sigrid Hjertén, Siri Derkert with her carvings in the metro and today painters such as Lena Cronqvist and Karin Mamma Andersson. Before them Ulrica Pasch, Amalia Lindegren and the generation of the 1880s paved the way in an art world where women were long denied the same training as men.

Facts

The 18th and 19th centuries: getting in

For a long time it was almost impossible for women to obtain a formal art education, but daughters in artist families could learn at home. Ulrica Pasch, born in 1735, learned portrait painting in her father’s studio and supported the family while her brother studied abroad. In 1773 she was elected a member of the newly founded Academy of Arts, the only woman with full membership in the 18th century.

Amalia Lindegren, born in 1814, was allowed to study at the Academy only as an extra pupil. With scholarships she travelled to Paris and Düsseldorf, and her genre pictures, such as Sunday Evening in a Dalarna Cottage of 1860, became very popular. She was elected to the Academy in 1856 and made her living from her art. In 1864 the Academy opened a department for female students, and women could thus receive a proper art education in Sweden, earlier than in many other countries.

The generation of the 1880s

The first students from the women’s department reached maturity in the 1880s, and many went on to Paris. Eva Bonnier painted bright interiors and portraits and signed the Opponents’ protest against the Academy in 1885. Hanna Pauli painted Breakfast Time in 1887 and became a skilled portrait painter, and Julia Beck stayed in France and painted quiet landscapes in mist and dusk; see the guide to The Opponents and the Artists’ Association.

Karin Larsson trained as a painter but after marrying Carl Larsson made the home at Sundborn her life’s work. Her textiles with geometric patterns and clear colours are seen today as early modern design. Anna Boberg travelled almost every year to the Lofoten Islands and painted fishing villages and mountains in winter light, and Elsa Beskow wrote and illustrated around forty picture books, from Peter in Blueberry Land to The Hat Cottage.

Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint, born in 1862, studied at the Academy of Arts in 1882–1887 and for a long time made her living as a respected portrait and landscape painter. At the same time she took part in spiritualist séances with a group of women who called themselves The Five. In 1906 she began what she understood as a commission from spiritual beings, the Paintings for the Temple, and by 1915 she had painted 193 works in the series.

The Ten Largest of 1907 depicts the ages of man with spirals, flower forms, letters and clear colours on sheets more than three metres high. The pictures are abstract several years before Kandinsky is usually counted as the pioneer of abstraction. She stipulated that they should be kept hidden for at least twenty years after her death, which came in 1944, and a major exhibition at the Moderna Museet in 2013 made her world famous. Read more in the guide to abstract art.

The Modernists

Sigrid Hjertén, born in 1885 in Sundsvall, studied under Matisse in Paris in 1909–1911 and became one of the most colourful Swedish Expressionists. Her Studio Interior of 1916 shows herself, her husband Isaac Grünewald and a guest in the studio in Södermalm, in strong, flat colours. Critics were often scornful, and she stood in her husband’s shadow for a long time. Today she is counted among the most important Swedish modernists.

Vera Nilsson painted with heavy, almost sculptural paint, often her daughter Cajsa, and from the 1930s became increasingly political. Tora Vega Holmström was a model for the Gothenburg Colourists. Siri Derkert worked for peace, women’s rights and the environment and represented Sweden at the Venice Biennale in 1962. Her carvings in the concrete walls of the Östermalmstorg metro station, completed in 1965, show portraits of women who fought for suffrage and peace.

From the 1960s to today

Barbro Östlihn moved to New York in 1961 and painted the city’s façades in austere, sharp forms; for a long time she stood in the shadow of her husband Öyvind Fahlström. Lena Cronqvist has painted pregnancy, motherhood, hospital rooms and girls with dolls, with a gaze both naive and merciless, and Marie-Louise Ekman has made playful, absurd and feminist pictures and films and been both rector of the Royal Institute of Art and head of the Royal Dramatic Theatre.

Among the younger artists, Cecilia Edefalk has explored how a picture changes when it is painted over and over again, Ann-Sofi Sidén has worked with video and surveillance, and Karin Mamma Andersson has painted dreamlike interiors and landscapes; she represented Sweden at the Venice Biennale in 2003. Nathalie Djurberg makes clay-animated films about desire and shame and received a Silver Lion in Venice in 2009.

Why they were so long less visible

Women were present in the art world, but their work was bought less often by museums, and when it was, it often ended up in storage. Many made their living from portraits, copies and teaching, genres valued lower than history painting and large landscapes. In artist marriages the wife was often expected to look after the home and children. Since the 1970s research has worked to bring them forward, and today they are clearly visible at the Nationalmuseum, the Moderna Museet and in the museums of Stockholm and Gothenburg. The whole story can be found in the app’s Swedish trails.

Works to see

Exercise

Who painted abstract pictures as early as 1906, several years before Kandinsky?