A Swedish artist gained international recognition for paintings of the northern lights and Arctic landscapes, having previously designed hundreds of stained glass windows for Stockholm’s most important buildings. Anna Boberg changed directions in her creativity from decorative arts through oil painting to sheep farming on a homestead. Her fascination with Lofoten resulted in over two hundred fifty works inspired by Norwegian landscapes.
Education and beginnings in applied arts
Anna Sofia Pettersson was born in Malmö in June 1864. She completed the State School of Applied Arts in Stockholm and worked as an assistant in a decorative workshop. In 1892, she began painting studies with Alexander Ekholm and graduated from the academy of fine arts.
That same year, she married Fredrik Boberg, an architect designing significant capital buildings, including a house recognized as a monument a century later. The artistic marriage supported each other in their creative careers. The 1890s brought her development in the field of stained glass design for prestigious institutions.
Stained glass projects for key buildings
In 1895, she created a collection of over six hundred stained glass windows for Stockholm Cathedral. A year later, she designed stained glass for the Stockholm City Council. In 1900, her designs adorned the headquarters of the Swedish Bank, and a year later she sat on the jury of a stained glass competition for city authorities.
Work on stained glass provided her recognition in the artistic community and professional position. She executed both designs and supervision of complex compositions. Her career as a stained glass artist brought financial stability and prestige in the world of applied arts.
Discovery of Lofoten and change of direction
In 1898, together with her husband, she traveled to the Norwegian Lofoten and saw the northern lights. The landscape fascinated her so much that a year later the couple bought a cottage in Reine in Sørvågen valley. Later they built a larger residence there named Ferie, which became their summer home.
In 1900, she abandoned her stained glass career to focus on oil painting depicting Arctic landscapes. In 1901-1908 and 1913-1914, she regularly returned to the islands with her husband. Annual stays allowed her to study the changing light of polar regions and document the harsh beauty of the north.
International success and critical acclaim
The Lofoten series encompassed over two hundred fifty paintings showing aurora borealis, granite formations, the sea, and winter landscapes. In 1901, the minister of culture invited her to exhibit a work at the Paris Salon des Artistes Français. Her painting of the northern lights was recognized as one of the twelve best works of that edition.
In 1902-1930, she presented works in Paris, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, and London. She also participated in international exhibitions, including in British Columbia. Critics appreciated her ability to capture the extraordinary light of northern latitudes and the drama of Arctic landscape.
Stained glass inspired by photographs from Norway
In 1902, she began creating stained glass based on her own photographs and sketches from Lofoten. She used aurora borealis motifs transferred to glass. In 1905, through connections with a clockmaking firm, her stained glass was installed in the university museum in Oxford.
In 1910, more stained glass went to the historical museum in London and to Swedish institutions in Stockholm and Gothenburg. The combination of experience from the nineties with Norwegian inspirations created a unique style. These works merged craft technique with artistic vision of Arctic landscapes.
Life on the farm and new themes
In 1925, the spouses bought the Kvarnbo farm near Stockholm, where Anna developed activities as a housewife and sheep breeder. For a decade, she ran an agricultural enterprise, combining work on the land with painting. Her paintings from this period depicted Swedish pastures, cottages, and lakes, departing from earlier Arctic themes.
In 1930, a retrospective exhibition in Stockholm showed one hundred thirty of her works, including twenty-five from the Lofoten series. That same year, she ended her official painting career at age sixty-six. However, she continued creating at home, painting family scenes and landscapes from the farm.
Final years and collection sale
Her husband Fredrik died in 1935 and was buried on the farm. A year later, Anna approached a collector for help selling one hundred paintings from the Lofoten series, which ended successfully. In 1937, she initiated a fundraiser for renovation of Christina Church in Stockholm.
In 1938, she completed her last stained glass, which was installed in a Stockholm church two years later. She died in 1935 in Stockholm at age seventy-three. Her legacy includes hundreds of paintings and stained glass scattered in museum and private collections across Europe.