Sophie Werenskiold

Sophie Werenskiold was a Norwegian textile artist and painter. She developed her art during the few years she was active, from a late romantic style of figure depictions to a realistic and fresh but intimate rendering of figures and landscapes.

The early portraits, including the sensitive portrait of his sister Inga from 1879, are kept in the Old Master style of the Munich school. In German Peasant Girl, painted in Munich in 1882, she shows lighter tones and impulses from plein air painting, and plein air painting comes into full bloom in Reading Lady on Garden Bench, painted in Kragerø in 1883.

After marriage and childcare, W. had to stop painting, and the last thing we know of her hand is a double portrait painted together with Erik W. in 1885, where the spouses have painted each other. Later, her artistic activity was limited to embroidery and appliqué after her spouse's watercolors. The textiles show a decorative sense and are clearly characterized by the art nouveau style.