Siri Lovisa Rathsman (July 28, 1895 – July 30, 1974) was a Swedish

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

artist,

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniqu ...

, painter,

ceramicist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Whil ...

, and journalist who spent much of her life in Paris. She was born in Sundsvall, Sweden and died in the

Brännkyrka Brännkyrka is a parish in South Stockholm, Sweden. The population is 36,572. Brännkyrka, at that time much larger in area, was amalgamated into the city of Stockholm in 1913. This area now constitutes the southern main part of Stockholm Mu ...

parish of Stockholm.

Early life and education

Siri Rathsman was the daughter of Richard Christoffer Rathsman and Kristina (Kerstin) Lovisa Jacobson. She received a formal painting from 1913-1915 education at the Wilhelmson painting school under the tutelage of

Carl Wilhelmson Carl Wilhelm Wilhelmson (12 November 1866, Fiskebäckskil – 24 September 1928, Gothenburg) was a Swedish painter, graphic artist, amateur photographer and art teacher. Biography His father, Anders Wilhelmson, was a "Bästeman" (a type of Nav ...

where she befriended artists such as Kurt Jungstedt. She continued her studies at the

Valand Academy Valand Academy ( sv, Akademin Valand) is a school for film, photography, literary composition, and fine art at the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was formed in 2012 through the merger of three formerly independent schools/ ...

of the Arts, which was then known as Gothenburg University's drawing and painting school. There, she was taught by

Birger Simonsson Birger Jörgen Simonsson (3 March 1883, Uddevalla – 11 October 1938, Stockholm) was a Swedish painter, illustrator and professor of landscape painting. He was the founder of a short-lived young artists' group called "" which was noted for expres ...

. She was trained in figurative and objective art. Her oeuvre, however, evolved to feature non-figurative art. During her twenties she moved to Paris, where she spent much of her life. At the

Académie Moderne The Académie Moderne was a free art school in Paris. It was founded by Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant in 1924. The school attracted students from Europe and America. Both Léger and Ozenfant taught there, along with Aleksandra Ekster and M ...

in Paris, she studied for

Othon Friesz Achille-Émile Othon Friesz (6 February 1879 – 10 January 1949), who later called himself Othon Friesz, a native of Le Havre, was a French artist of the Fauvist movement. Biography Othon Friesz was born in Le Havre, the son of a long line of ...

and Raoul Duffy. In 1921, she studied with

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

Career

Rathsman was active in Paris from 1916 or 1919-1966 and worked as both an artist and journalist.

Artist

Rathsman was involved in the workshops at Atélier 17, a studio run by

Stanley William Hayter Stanley William Hayter (27 December 1901 – 4 May 1988) was an English painter and printmaker associated in the 1930s with surrealism and from 1940 onward with abstract expressionism. Regarded as one of the most significant printmakers of th ...

. There, she worked in the graphic studio alongside other artists such as

Nina Negri Nina may refer to: * Nina (name), a feminine given name and surname Acronyms *National Iraqi News Agency, a news service in Iraq *Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, on the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology *No income, n ...

and

Dalla Husband Gladys Dalla Husband (March 3, 1899 – August 15, 1943) was a Canadian artist who was active in Paris and Mexico. Early life The daughter of Major Herbert Husband, she was born in Winnipeg and grew up on the family ranch in Vernon. The famil ...

. Alongside Negri and Husband, she used the principles of

surrealist automatism Surrealist automatism is a method of art-making in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the making process, allowing the unconscious mind to have great sway. Early 20th-century Dadaists, such as Hans Arp, made some use of this method ...

. In 1936, she signed the Dimensionist Manifesto, which was published by

Charles Sirato Charles Sirato (26 January 1905, in Újvidék – 1 January 1980, in Budapest) was a Hungarian poet, art theorist, and translator. He most famously authored the Dimensionist manifesto. Life Pre-1930 Dimensionist manifesto In 1936 in Paris, Cha ...

. This manifesto encouraged artists to engage with mathematical and scientific discoveries, including

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

Theory of General Relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics. ...

Journalist

Rathsman also worked as a journalist. She spent some time writing for the Swedish newspaper ''Sundsvallposten''. Then, from 1921-1966, she worked as a correspondent for the Swedish magazine ''

Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning ''Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning'' (''GHT'') was a daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 1832 to 1985. History and profile ''GHT'' was founded in 1832 by publisher Magnus Prytz and had a liberal alignment from the late ...

''; sometimes she published under the pseudonym Comtesse Belloni. The editor-in-chief in 1940 was

Torgny Segerstedt Torgny Karl Segerstedt (1 November 1876 – 31 March 1945) was a Swedish professor and scholar of comparative religion, who later became editor-in-chief of the newspaper ''Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning''. He is most remembered for h ...

. The

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

removed Rathsman from Paris due to her being one of Segerstedt's employees. She relocated to

Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of V ...

, France, where she continued reporting. In 1943, she wrote ''Vichy lost the game; Descriptions from the defeated France,'', an account of life in Vichy during World War II''.'' The first chapter of the book is entitled ''Life in the Residential City During the First Year'' and contains her observations of 1940, including the influx of refugees from Belgium, the Netherlands and from Nazi occupied France. She was expelled from France and returned to Sweden, where she published her account of Vichy. She returned to France around the end of the war.

Exhibitions

Rathsman participated in group exhibitions throughout her career in many European cities, including but not limited to Stockholm, Zurich, Paris, London, and Oslo. In Paris, she exhibited alongside artists including

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

and

Yves Tanguy Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy (January 5, 1900 – January 15, 1955), known as just Yves Tanguy (, ), was a French surrealist painter. Biography Tanguy, the son of a retired navy captain, was born January 5, 1900, at the Ministry of Naval Affa ...

. In 1937, she was one of the artists on display at the ''Nordic Surrealist Exhibition'' at

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion In 1951, the Swedish-French art gallery held a retrospective exhibition of her work. She is said to have exhibited there more than once. In 1952, she was exhibited in Gothenburg at the Lorensberg art gallery.

Personal life

Rathsman never married. She may have been in a relationship with

Georges Bidault Georges-Augustin Bidault (; 5 October 189927 January 1983) was a French politician. During World War II, he was active in the French Resistance. After the war, he served as foreign minister and prime minister on several occasions. He joined the ...

in the 1930s. She is remembered for wearing her hair short. Her pseudonym, Comtesse Belloni, comes from the location of her studio on rue Belloni.