Maria Röhl

Swedish portrait artist (1801-1875)

Maria Christina Röhl, (1801-1875), was a Swedish artist. She was a sketch artist and drew portraits of many famous people. In Sweden, her name is spelled as Maria Röhl.

Maria Röhl (1834)

Her paintings are displayed at the national museum at in Stockholm, and in the royal library, there are one thousand eight hundred of her portraits.

She was born in a rich family, but in 1822, her parents died, and she became poor. She then thought that she would become a teacher, but the artist Christian Forsell taught her to draw portraits of people like an artist.

She made portratis of friends of the rich family she lived with, and soon, it had become popular to go to her when you wanted to have a picture of yourself. This was before photography, and it was cheaper than having your portrait painted in oil.

The king made her a court-painter in 1843, and in 1843-1846, she studied in Paris. She worked as a portrait-drawer for thirty years. Eventually, however, the new art of photography led to less assignments for her.

References change

  • Osterberg, Carin; Lewenhaupt, Inga; Wahlberg, Anna-Greta (1990). Svenska kvinnor: foregangare, nyskapare. ISBN 978-91-87896-03-3.