Portrait Study

Portrait Study

1885

Oil on canvas

Mått 47,00 x 40,00 cm Ram 55,00 x 48,40 x 6,50 cm

GKM 2048

Gift of the estate of Elsa Flensburg, 1982

The person in the painting does not meet our gaze. Instead, she looks upward, focusing on something beyond us. Her mouth is slightly open, and only her head is turned our way; the rest of her body is in profile. She wears a green blouse, a necklace, and a gold earring. Her headscarf carries a history of its own. It has been worn for religious and cultural reasons, but also to signal age and status. In America and Europe, it became associated with oppression, linked to slavery and laws that restricted the clothing and appearance of black women. Many resisted these controls—finding loopholes, reclaiming cultural expressions, and redefining their meaning. The person portrayed is believed to be a woman named Marthe, a model in Paris who sat for several artists. Little is known about her life, though many artist models of the period lived in poverty. The portrait was painted by Mina Carlson-Bredberg, born in Gothenburg in 1857. She first studied under Kerstin Cardon and Amanda Sidwall in Stockholm and later continued her training in Paris. Carlson-Bredberg became an important advocate for opening the art world to women and remained a highly regarded artist throughout her life.

Warsaw, 24/06/2021 - 10/10/2021

Kristoffer Arvidsson, Per Dahlström, Björn Fredlund, Anna Hyltze, Philippa Nanfeldt, Isabella Nilsson, Johan Sjöström, Samlingen Göteborgs konstmuseum, red. Kristoffer Arvidsson, Per Dahlström, Anna Hyltze, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg 2014., ill. p. 193 Agnieszka Bagińskaoch Renata Higersberger er al., The Artist Anna Bilińska 1854-1893, red. Agnieszka Bagińska och Renata Higersberger, The National Museum in Warsaw, Warszawa, 2021., p. 206