Victorine Nordenswan

Victorine Nordenswan
Victorine Nordenswan (c. 1860s)
Born	Hildur Antoinette Viktorine[note 1] Nordenswan[1] (1838-06-14)14 June 1838 Hämeenlinna, Grand Duchy of Finland
Died	25 August 1872(1872-08-25) (aged 34) Hämeenlinna
Alma mater	Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts
Movement	Düsseldorf school of painting
Awards	Dukaattipalkinto (1865, 1867)
^ Shown in different sources alternatively as Victorine or Viktorine

Victorine Nordenswan (1838—1872) was a Finnish painter in the Düsseldorf tradition, specialising in religious themes, and notable as one of the first professional female artists of Finland.^[2]

Visual art in the mid-19th century was male-dominated, but Nordenswan was considered to be exceptionally talented, and widely expected to make a significant career as an artist.^[2] However, she died of tuberculosis at age 34.^[2]

Nordenswan trained at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm in 1860–1862, and from 1864 onwards in Düsseldorf.^[1][3] Her public debut was in 1861, and she won in the Finnish Art Society's Ducat Contest [fi] the second prize in 1865, followed by the first prize in 1867.^[3]

Among her best-known works are St. John the Evangelist (1866) and Women Mourning at Christ’s Grave (1868), both today housed at the Finnish National Gallery.^[4]

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