Cet ouvrage fait suite à la tenue d’un colloque international pluridisciplinaire organisé les 19 et 20 septembre 2019 au Centre Pompidou et au musée d’Orsay, à Paris, en partenariat avec l’association AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions). Intitulé Faire œuvre. La formation et la professionnalisation des artistes femmes aux XIXe et XXe siècles, le colloque entendait dresser un état actuel de la recherche sur l’accession des artistes femmes aux structures d’enseignement, en France et à l’étranger, qu’il s’agisse des ateliers, des académies privées ou des écoles publiques.
Over fifty Scandinavian women sculptors studied and exhibited their works in Paris between 1850 and 1930. In Sweden women were accepted at the Academy of Fine Arts as from 1864. Many continued studying abroad, especially in France, where they benefitted from a less traditional education at private schools. At the time Paris was home to an art market that did not exist in Sweden, and these artists became successful for their sculpture and art objects. They often pursued their entire career abroad and struggled to gain official recognition in their home country. Museums seldom acquired their works and as a result these artists were generally omitted from art history. This article presents the training process and professional careers of a few of these Swedish women sculptors at the turn of the twentieth century and highlights the traits that some had in common, explaining what it was like to be a woman sculptor at this time and discussing why they were largely forgotten in the twentieth century.