An August Night. Study from North Norway

Anna Boberg was a Swedish artist of many artistic pursuits; initially she worked with ceramics and textiles and besides painting she also worked with set design and writing. She was of an artistic family, but never received any formal training in the arts, and is considered an autodidact. Many of her paintings are of northern Norway, which became Boberg's focus for many years after a trip there in 1901. These works were not received very well in Sweden but did much better in Paris. Boberg spent a great deal of time in the area near Lofoten in Norway, where she eventually had a cabin, and she made many of those trips on her own.

Boberg was fascinated by the arctic landscape. From 1901 onwards, she visited the Lofoten islands off the north-west coast of Norway year after year, often undertaking arduous expeditions to make oil sketches on cardboard. This painting was based on one such sketch of the summer night north of the Arctic Circle. Daylight lingers in the sky above the mountains and cabins reflected in the still water. Anna Boberg’s Lofoten paintings won acclaim at exhibitions in Europe and the USA.

We present today's painting thanks to the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.  : )  If you're ready to learn about other women artists, please check our Women Artists Notebook here.  : )

P.S. Here are five Swedish pioneering female photographers you should get to know!