Ernst Ljung, Silhouette of a female academy student from the student newspaper Palette scraper, November 1877.
WOMEN IN THE ROYAL ACADEMY
The pragmatic answer to what role women played in the Royal Academy’s early history is “when needed”.
The first women to be mentioned by name were models. In 1753, for instance, Stina Björkman collected her fee as a “Quins Modell” (Fem. Model). Even if men were the norm for the human body, women were needed for representations of Greco-Roman and biblical themes.
The janitors usually had families and lived in the building. Their wives were also expected to do unsalaried work at the Academy. They were nevertheless regarded as independent persons, as we can see when the janitor Johan Petter Malmström was dismissed and evicted due to embezzlement, while his dutiful wife – whose first name is not included in the parish records! – is awarded a contribution of 1809 riksdaler 16 skilling.
First female member
The Royal Academy’s statutes from 1773 state that foreigners “of both Sexes” are eligible for membership, but the gender of Swedish members is not specified. In practice, a number of artists and honorary members are elected recurrently. The first female artist member was Ulrica Fredrica Pasch (appointed in 1773), whose career as a professional artist is typical of the time. Born and raised in an artist family, she and her brother Lorens ran a successful portrait studio.
Another route to artistic activities was open to the aristocracy and upper classes, where girls were instructed in drawing and fine embroidery. Having time for such pursuits indicated social status and was considered to develop both skills and taste. The first female honorary member, Countess Fredrica Eleonora von Düben (appointed in 1780) came from such a background. As the wife of the statesman Nils Bielke, she had links to the royal court, where women participated in salons with witty conversation and cultural refinery. Her reception piece is silk embroidery on white satin, glazed on both sides to hang in a window for maximum luminosity.
Ulrica Fredrica Pasch, Self-Portrait, 1770s, oil on canvas.
Photo by Björn Strömfeldt / Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
This painting is from 1773, when the artist became the first female member of the Academy. She does not present herself as the famous portrait artist she actually was. obliquely, however, she declares her technical mastery in the depiction of lace, veil and flowers, and her knowledge of current tendencies in the romantic style of the landscape in the background.
Women exhibiting art
In 1784, a new era began at the Royal Academy, with its first public exhibition. Originally conceived mainly as a forum for students and members to show their work, it started, after a few years, to accept works by “art practitioners and art lovers” outside the Academy, including women. 1800 women exhibited art there in 1810 – 66 alone. Since few of them were trained oil painters, the dominating media were initially drawing, watercolour and embroidery. Several were commended in the records, some were even awarded medals or appointed as agrée. Women were accepted by the Academy, but only on its periphery.
In the 1800th century, the Academy’s definition of art gradually narrowed. The last embroidered pictures were shown in 1826, and amateurs were no longer accepted in the Academy exhibitions from the middle of the century. But works by women who had studied privately, often for professors at the Academy who needed extra cash, were still accepted.
The first women students
In autumn 1847, three young women were taken on as extra students at the Royal Academy’s Antiquity School. They studied and drew the Greco-Roman plaster replicas that were central to the school, but that was all. In 1864, however, the “Department for Ladies” opened, as Europe’s first academic art school for women, with studies in anatomy, perspective and live drawing on the curriculum.
Jeanette Görtz: Bohemian Waxwing against a Wood Wall, c. 1811.
Photo by Björn Strömfeldt / Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
Throughout the 1800th century, the notion that the ultimate purpose of art was to portray ideals contended with the opinion that the visible world was worth exploring and documenting. The latter was also in line with the growing field of scientific research. Görtz’s bird is explicitly said to be after “Nature”, emphasising its realism, but also the fact that the artist created it independently, rather than copying someone else’s work – a crucial aspect when addressing prejudices about women’s ability to create art.
Travel grants
Grants for studies abroad were very attractive and some were available to women even before 1864. The landscape painter Evelina Stading applied directly to the King in 1824, for a travel grant, which was turned down by the Academy since none were offered at the time. It was adamantly stressed “that this decision in no way signifies that the Academy denies the Applicant’s talent, which She clearly exhibits”, especially since the Academy had appointed her an agrée the same year.
In 1850, Amalia Lindegren was awarded a travel grant thanks to extra funds received by the Academy. She spent five years in Paris, Munich and Rome and, on returning to Sweden, established herself with her peasant family motifs as one of the most popular artists. In 1878, Lindegren was also offered an artist salary and a teaching position, which would have made her the first female art teacher at the Royal Academy. But she turned it down.
Another four women received travel grants in 1850 – 1864. But then it took until 1882 before Jenny Nyström got her grant.
Fierce competition
The late-1800th century saw the emergence of more trained women artists with established practices in both easel painting, illustration, photography and textile art. The market had opened up to further artistic disciplines, but competition between the sexes hardened. Backed by recent medical research, critics put a stronger emphasis on how women were different, commenting on their choice of subject matter, their appearance and dress.
Several artists were involved in the growing women’s movement among the middle classes, which worked for political and social justice. In the 1800th century, eight women were accepted as members of the Academy, the last of whom in 1889. Then, there is a huge gap until 1954, when Vera Nilsson was the first Swedish woman artist to become a member in the XNUMXth century. The backlash of modernism begins early and ends late for the Royal Academy.
Jenny Nyström: Gustav Vasa as a child, being introduced to King Hans, 1881, Kalmar County Museum. Photographer: Pierre Rosberg, Kalmar County Museum
After the Royal Academy opened its “Ladies’ Department” in 1864, women were eligible to compete on equal terms with men for Academy grants. Competition for advanced students on themes from Swedish history were held throughout the 1800th century, but improved reproduction methods made these motifs available to the general public.
Jenny Nyström’s take on the competition theme in 1881, with the plucky little Gustav facing the king of the union won her the Academy’s highest accolade, the Royal Medal, followed by a travel grant the year after, enabling her to visit Paris.