Female Artists - Famous & Forgotten IX

The collection presented at Crafoord Auktioner Stockholm brings together both renowned and long-overlooked Swedish women artists, most of whom were active during the first half of the 20th century. All were independent artists who, during their lifetimes, did not receive the recognition they deserved.
With nearly 180 works by more than 100 artists, spanning a wide range of techniques, the auction offers a journey through art history—from the early 1900s to the present day. Among the more well-known names represented are Siri Derkert, Ruth Milles, Eddie Figge, Barbro Bäckström, Greta Knutson-Tzara, Eva Bagge, and Esther Kjerner.
The catalogue also includes more discreet and rarely encountered artistic practices, such as Anica Nyman with her Hobby Horse, Anna Wrangel von Brehmer, Rigmor Ilstedt represented by an early work from 1968, as well as Greta Erhardt and Maria Wrangel.
Highlights of the auction include five finely attuned paintings by Vera Frisén—sometimes referred to as “a Swedish Schjerfbeck”—along with several works by Maria Fröberg featuring atmospheric landscapes, a bouquet of floral woodcuts by Maja Fjaestad, and wall textiles by Ingegerd Silow and Barbro Springchorn for MMF. Also presented are fine works by Eva Bagge and Esther Kjerner, together with their French travel guide, signed and dated 1897.
A key exhibition in the history of women artists was Liljevalchs’ De drogo till Paris (1988), which brought Nordic painting of the 1880s into focus. A total of 250 works were shown, including those by Hanna Pauli and Helene Schjerfbeck. What these artists shared was Paris in the 1880s—a place where women could study art and live under freer conditions than in their home countries. The exhibition became one of the great public successes of the 1980s.
The current auction also includes later generations of women artists who studied in the art capital of Paris. Among them were Brita Nordencreutz, Birgit Forssell, Ingegerd Beskow, Zoia Krukovskya Lagerkrans, Greta Knutson-Tzara, and Maj Sandmark-Liefwendal—all students of either Henri Matisse, André Lhote, or Fernand Léger.
In more recent years, significant efforts have been made to highlight the importance of female artistic practices. This work has resulted in artists such as Sigrid Hjertén, Vera Nilsson, and Siri Derkert now being ranked on par with their male contemporaries. One important initiative was Moderna Museet’s project The Second Wish Museum (2006–2009), which aimed to complement the museum’s collection with works by women artists, primarily from the first half of the 20th century. Among the acquisitions was Tora Vega Holmström’s Strangers. Major exhibitions have also been devoted to previously neglected artists such as Julia Beck, Eva Bonnier, and Hilma af Klint.
Piece by piece, the history of art is being rewritten. Talents once relegated to the shadows by the norms of their time are now coming into the light. There is still much to be done and much more to discover—and we hope that this themed auction will help move that work forward.