ELLEN JOLIN. Riddarfjärden.

Watercolour, 11 x 20 cm. Frame dimensions 30 x 38 cm. Signed EJ in monogram.
Dedication on verso: “Alma Nygren. Present by Miss Ellen Jolin on 28 Jan 1900.“

Ellen Jolin belonged to the group of purposeful female Scandinavian artists who, in the late 19th century, traveled to Paris for studies at the Académie Julian. The school was located at 27, Galerie Montmartre, and unlike the École des Beaux-Arts was open to female pupils. Here she began her studies in 1889 for J. J. Lefebvre and quickly took an impression of the new currents in art. After Paris, Italy attracted the talented Ellen. Here she painted mostly on her own subjects she found during her wanderings through Rome and Venice.

After returning to Sweden, she and Emma Löwstädt-Chadwick arranged a joint exhibition in Stockholm in 1892. Jolin showed 70 watercolours from his time in Italy. The successes continue. The following year she exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago, where Eva Bonnier, Hanna Pauli, Elisabeth Keyser and Emma Sparre were also represented. Ellen Jolin continued to be a prolific exhibitor at home in Sweden, but her art was also exhibited in Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen, Berlin, Oslo and Helsinki. It is thus surprising that her artistry today is more or less forgotten.