Ester Dorothea Almqvist (3 November 1869 – 11 June 1934) was a Swedish artist who was a pioneer of

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

painting in Sweden.

Family and education

Almqvist was born in

Bromma Bromma () is a borough (''stadsdelsområde'') in the western part of Stockholm, Sweden, forming part of the Stockholm Municipality. Bromma is primarily made up of Bromma Parish and Västerled Parish. The fourth largest airport in Sweden and the ...

but spent her childhood in Stockholm, where her parents taught in a school for Christian missionaries. She is the female artist who is represented with most artworks in the collections of Malmö Konstmuseum, a total of 2,083 pieces. She had specified in her will that her collection of oil and watercolour paintings, charcoal, pastel and ink drawings, graphic pages and sketchbooks should be donated to that particular museum. Her father, a priest, died when she was nine. Her mother worked as a private tutor and book seller for the sake of providing for her family. Almqvist was born with a deformed spine that limited her mobility throughout her life but also gave her freedom to study art instead of being confined to housework. She attended the Technical School in Stockholm, graduating in 1891, and she studied art privately with the painter Gustaf Cederström. She continued her art studies at the Valand Art Academy in Gothenburg (1892–1893) and then at the

Konstnärsförbundets skola was a painting school in Stockholm, Sweden, which was offered by ('the Artists' Society') 1890–1908. The latter association was in turn established in opposition to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. One of the school's co-founders was ...

in Stockholm (1894–1895). Her teachers included

Per Hasselberg Per Hasselberg (1 January 1850 – 25 July 1894), until 1870 ''Karl Petter Åkesson'', was a Swedish sculptor. He has received critical acclaim mainly for his delicate and allegorical nudes, copies of which are widely distributed in public pla ...

and

Bruno Liljefors Bruno Andreas Liljefors (; 14 May 1860 – 18 December 1939) was a Swedish artist. He is perhaps best known for his nature and animal motifs, especially with dramatic situations. He was the most important and probably most influential Swedish wil ...

. While in school, she supported herself by commercial book illustration work. Later, she was a member of the women's association

Nya Idun Nya Idun is a Swedish cultural association for women founded in 1885, originally as a female counterpart to Sällskapet Idun ('the Idun Society'). Its aim was to "gather educated women in the Stockholm area for informal gatherings". There was al ...

Art career

Almqvist spent most of her working life in Lund, and some of her best-known paintings are of the surrounding areas of

Skåne Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne ...

province. She began exhibiting in the late 1890s and participated in the 1904

St. Louis World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 milli ...

. Almqvist's early work is

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...

in style and conforms to what was then the prevailing mood of gentle melancholy in Swedish painting. After her mother's death she turned to Expressionism, and her mature paintings from about 1913 onward share a strong kinship with the work of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, featuring vigorous brushwork, strong colors, and heavy lines. Almqvist belonged to a group of Swedish women artists who traveled, worked, exhibited, and sometimes lived together, including

Tora Vega Holmström Tora Vega Holmström (March 2, 1880, Tottarp, Scania – January 28, 1967, Lund) was a Swedish painter. Early life and education Anna Tora Vega Elisabeth Holmström grew up with five siblings at Hvilan Community College in Åkarp, run by her pare ...

Agnes Wieslander Agnes Wieslander (1873–1934) was a Swedish painter who mainly produced landscapes although she also painted still lifes and portraits. Her art education included Harald Foss in Copenhagen, the Académie Colarossi in Paris, Carl Wilhelmson in Go ...

, and

Maja Fjæstad Kerstin Maria (Maja) Fjæstad née Hallén (1873–1961) was a Swedish artist who was successful as a portrait painter, as well as a textile artist and an engraver. Together with her husband Gustaf Fjæstad, at the turn of the century she became ...

. In her last year of life, when back pain made it impossible to work, a younger generation of women artists, such as Vera Nilsson, Mollie Faustman, and Siri Derket mounted an exhibition of her work in Stockholm honoring her as an early Swedish modernist. Broader recognition came only after her death in 1934, however. Another exhibit was organized in Lund at the Skånska Konstmuseum a year after she died by a friend Nils Gösta Sandblad. Four years after she died, a retrospective was held at the Galerie Moderne in Brussels. In Almqvist's will, she insisted her artwork would be donated to th
Malmö Art Museum
Her work is now in the collection of the Swedish National Museum, the Gothenburg Art Museum, the Malmö Art Museum, and other institutions, and she is widely recognized as a pioneer of Expressionism in Sweden. In 1992, her painting entitled ''The Meeting'' ( sv, Sammankomsten, 1929) was chosen for a Swedish postage stamp honoring Article 20 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...

, which protects

freedom of association Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline mem ...

. Her papers are held by

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion :sv:Ester Almqvist. Sources cited on that page include: * Boëthius, Gerda: "Ester Almqvist". In ''Svenskt biografiskt lexikon'', 1918. (In Swedish) * Rausing, Birgit. ''Ester Almqvist och hennes krets''. Lund: Signum, 1998. (In Swedish)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Almqvist, Ester Dorothea 1869 births 1934 deaths 20th-century Swedish painters Swedish women painters Swedish painters Expressionist painters 20th-century Swedish women artists 20th-century Swedish artists Members of Nya Idun

Family and education

Art career

Further reading

External links