Hanna Pauli

Hanna Pauli was a Swedish artist born Hirsch on 13 January 1864 in Stockholm and died on 29 December 1940 in Solna. She first studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, and later in Paris. In 1887 she married the artist Georg Pauli, who was also a painter, draftsman, sculptor, etcher and writer. After she had children, she devoted a lot of time to her family, and their home became a gathering place for many cultural personalities of the time.

Hanna Pauli mainly painted intimate interiors and psychologically penetrating portraits. She has a special place in Swedish art history, and is known for some finely tuned group portraits, such as "Vännerna" with Ellen Key. This painting shows Key reading aloud from a book to his closest friends in the glow of a kerosene lamp. The painting was painted between 1900 and 1907. Other prominent works include portraits of Venny Soldan (1887), Verner von Heidenstam (1893) and a portrait of her husband Georg. In 1905, Hanna and Georg Pauli built Villa Pauli in Storängen in Nacka, which was designed by Albin Brag. They each had their own studio there, and they lived and worked there for the rest of their lives. Hanna Pauli has had a street named after her in Fruängen in south-west Stockholm. Many of the streets in the area have been named after colorful women who were active in the first half of the 20th century. Together with her husband, Hanna Pauli donated significant works of art to the Jönköping County Museum. She is represented at the National Gallery in Oslo with the fairytale motif "The Princess", and is also represented in the National Museum and in the Bonnierska Portrait Collection in Stockholm.