Eva Edling

1872–1964.

Artist, portrait painter.

Eva Edling studied at the Academy of Fine Arts during the years 1900–1905 and also made study trips to Germany and Italy.

She was active in the Swedish Women Artists Association and participated in exhibitions with the association in Stockholm, Lund, Uppsala and Gothenburg.

Edling was a resident of Gropgränd 2, together with her mother and later by herself.

Not far from Gropgränd, lived her brother Nils, in the "Edlingian house" on St. Olof Street 2. There, a number of artists and writers have had their student residences.

 

Burial site: 0121-1068

Image description: Self-portrait painted by Eva Edling in 1902. Photo: From private collection. [The image is cropped]
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Greta Gahn

1894–1996.

Textile artist.

After studying at the Higher School of Art and the Scuola di Tessitura in Milan, Greta Gahn was the director and artistic director of the hand-work friends from 1931 to 1951.

During the war years and the time thereafter, it was mainly Gahn in collaboration with Alf Munthe who responded for most of the monumental textile art in churches and public buildings.

She was also together with Munthe co-owner of Lekattgården, a workshop for tissue and embroidery. Greta Gahns Artistic judgement and technical know-how was crucial to Munthe's textile works.

 

Burial site: 0118-0928

Image description: Greta Gahn, unknown year. Photo: Margit Karlson / Leksands Local History archive. Leksands-Culture House [The image is cropped]
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Maj Bring

1880–1971.

Artist.

Maj Bring grew up in Uppsala at Sysslomansgatan 8 and later on the Skolgatan. She studied at the Vilhelmssons painting school in Gothenburg and at the Academy of Arts and for Henri Matisse in Paris from 1908 to 1910.

Bring had her own art school in Stockholm and was chairman of the Association Swedish Women Artists between the years 1949–1951. Bring painted landscapes in modernist style and later worked with collages and sequined paintings.

Her autobiography Counter-Clockwise (1986) is in reissue supplemented with a large amount of pictures from her oeuvre. The book depicts her artistry and her time in Paris. The republication has been done by Maj Bring's fund

Works of art by Maj Bring are represented at Moderna Museet, National Museum, Sahlströmsgården in Torsby, Aguelimuseet in Sala, Per Ekström Museum in Mörbylånga and Borås Museum.

In 2008 several artists were honored to have the streets and parks in Stockholm named after them. Maj Bring is represented among them.

 

Burial site: 0129-2149

Image description: May Bring, 1904. Photo: Retrieved from the book Maj Bring – Motsols. Memoarer och konst. 2007. [The image is cropped]
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Elin Eriksson

1868–1950.

Merchant, market vendor.

Elin Eriksson and her husband Josef Theodor Eriksson started Stabbylunds haulage and slaughterhouse at Jumkilsgatan in Uppsala.

In the market hall they had sales as well as at S:t Eriks Square where among other things horsemeat was sold.

For thirty-five years, in heat and cold, she stood on the square. Her boots are preserved at Upplandsmuseet (Uppsala county museum).

 

Burial site: 0142-1656

Image description: Elin Eriksson probably 1940's. Photo: From private collection. [The image is cropped]
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Fadime Sahindal

1975–2002.

Front figure against honour-related oppression.

Fadime Sahindal, who was of Turkish-Kurdish origin, came with the family to Sweden at the beginning of the 1980s. As a student she studied social studies in Sundsvall and Östersund.

In her 20s, she began a relationship, which was not accepted by relatives. After harassment and threats from male relatives, Sahindal made a police report and contacted the media. It was in connection with this that she became known to the public.

She became a symbol of other immigrant women in similar situations. At a seminar on integration issues in Parliament in 2001, she criticized the cultural pattern in some immigrant groups and also the inability of society to support women who were in a situation similar to hers.

On a visit to the home 21 January 2002, Fadime Sahindal was murdered. The father was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.

Representatives of Kurdish organisations and other immigrant groups in Sweden took a strong distance from the murder of Fadime Sahindal.

After that, several organisations, networks and funds were formed in support of vulnerable immigrant women and the subsequent debate was about honour killings and a lack of support for immigrant women.

Among the large numbers of people attending the funeral service in Uppsala Cathedral on 5 February 2002 there were representatives of the Government and the Royal Family.

 

Burial site: 0313-0861

Image description: Fadime Sahindal, 1998. Photo: Eva Tedesjö / IBL. [The image is cropped]
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Ingrid Årfelt

1923–1999.

Artist, printmaker.

After studying at Edwin Ollers Painting School and Art Academy, Ingrid Årfelt came to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1941.

At the academy, she participated in the teaching of graphic arts and in the division of Sculpture from 1946–1948.

In 1956 Årfelt obtained a scholarship from the Italian state and was staying a period in Rome at the Accademia degli Stanieri.

Årfelt has among other things worked with portraits, figure compositions and landscapes. Her work is performed in woodcuts, Drypoint, aquatint, linoleum and pastel. Årfelt gave in 1962 a set version of the Babylonian Gilgamesh, a work that attracted a lot of attention.

Since 2008, Upplandsmuseet has been home to a wrought-iron work by Ingrid Årfelt from 1963, inspired by the folk life around the old "Rullan" restaurant in Uppsala. The artwork depicts and romanticizes an era that was wiped out by demolition and new construction.

Ingrid Årfelt is represented at several museums, for example the National museum and Stockholm City Museum.

 

Burial site: 0157-0262

Image description: Ingrid Årfelt in her studio with one of her "shell-shaped" sculptures. Photo: From private collection. [The image is cropped]
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Karin Westman Berg

1914–1997.

Literature scholar.

After the master's degree, Karin Westman Berg worked as a grammar school teacher in Luleå and Härnösand from 1943 to 1957.

She received her Ph.D. in Uppsala in 1962 with studies in C.J.L. Almqvist's view on women and edited several anthologies, such as Text analysis from a gender perspective (1976) and Don't cry – research (1979).

Westman Berg was a leading figure in Swedish feminist literary research and was a member of the Fredrika Bremer Association Board from 1945 to 1977.

Westman Berg initiated and led gender roles seminars at the course activities from 1967 to 1977. At that time, women's research seminars were started, which Westman Berg led up to 1979. The seminars became an inspiring meeting place for people interested in women's issues and women's research.

A research post on women's and gender issues gave her the opportunity to start the Women literature project at the Department of Literature in Uppsala in 1978. With women's literature, it referred at the time to fiction which was written by Swedish women authors.

At the retirement in 1982, Karin Westman Berg was awarded the name of professor.

 

Burial site: 0319-1349

Image description: Karin Westman Berg, unknown year. Photo: Inger Harnesk / Centre for Gender Studies, Uppsala University. [The image is cropped]
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Gunilla Bergsten

1933–1988.

Literary scholar.

Gunilla Bergsten was an associate professor in literary studies and mainly devoted to German literature, both in academic and popular science circles.

In 1963 she defended her thesis, Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus , who attracted a great deal of international attention. It came to mean a lot to Thomas Mann research, because it skilfully sorted out the structure of Mann's novel design while presenting a comprehensive, previously unknown source material.

Gunilla was also theater critic for many years in the paper Upsala Nya Tidning.

 

Burial site: 0325-3169

Image description: Gunilla Bergsten, unknown year. Photo: From private collection. [The image is cropped]
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Ingegerd Beskow

1887–1978.

Artist.

Ingegerd Beskow went after her studies for Carl Wilhelmsson at Valand Painting School between 1907 and 1909 to Paris, where she became a pupil of Henri Matisse and Maurice Denis.

Beskow was a skilled watercolour painter and also painted in oil in a muted black coloring. Between 1926 and 1950, she exhibited her art in several major Swedish cities. The motifs were often landscapes, drawn from cities such as Stockholm, Uppsala, Växjö and others.

Photography from 1943 at Växjö Gymnasium's 300 anniversary. The picture shows Ingegerd and (probably) Bishop's wife Brilioth on the way into the cathedral. Photo: Yngve Andersson / Culture Park Småland / Småland Museum.

Oil painting on canvas performed by Ingegerd in 1937. The painting depicts the Växjö Cathedral seen from Ingelstadsvägen, with the Karoliner house in front. Photo: The Culture Park Småland / Småland Museum.

Burial site: 0152-0057

Image description: Ingegerd Beskow paints on one of the paintings at the exhibition at Smålands Museum in 1944. Photo: Jan Erik Anderbjörk / kulturparken Småland / Smålands Museum. [The image is cropped]
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Greta Arwidsson

1906–1998.

Archaeologist.

Greta Arwidsson was born in Uppsala in 1906 and was the daughter of Ivar and Anna, both of whom were academics.

During the 1930s, after studying at Uppsala University, Arwidsson participated together with Professor Sune Lindqvist of the Båtgravsfältet at Vals field, which is located 7 km north of Uppsala next to Fyris creek and is a large burial ground that was used during Iron age. In 1942 she defended her thesis on the findings of the Vals field, which focused on the animal ornamentation of the Vendel period.

She was an associate professor at Uppsala University and later National antiquarian on Gotland and member of Swedish Academy. On Gotland, Arwidsson carried out several important studies. Arwidsson also participated in investigations of Birka and thus contributed to the Birka research, among other things as editor and author for research publications.

In 1956 Arwidsson was appointed professor of archaeology. In addition, she became internationally recognized for her efforts in archaeology. In her name "Greta Arwidsson Friends" was funded, an association for women working in the student nations in Uppsala.

From Greta Arwidsson Book from 1942 concerning the findings in Vals field. The picture shows a helmet found in one of the tombs. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

In 1944, Greta Arwidsson and Gunnar Ekholm examined from Uppsala University six graves on the ridge in Gamla Uppsala. Greta Arwidsson stands by the camera. Photo: Nils Johansson (presumed) / Upplandsmuseet.

Burial site: 0217-1257

Image description: Greta Arwidsson at the Museum of Nordic Antiquities, Gustavianum, Uppsala unknown year. Gunnar Sundgren / Upplandsmuseet. [The image is cropped]
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