The Artist Venny Soldan-Brofeldt

Hanna Pauli’s portrait of her artist friend Venny Soldan-Brofeldt, painted in their common studio in Montparnasse in Paris 1886–1887, has in recent decades become a classic of Swedish art history. Pauli has depicted the model sitting on the floor leaning forward with outstretched legs. The woman looks up at us with half-open mouth. To depict a woman sitting in this relaxed manner was bold for its …