Harriet Sundström [1872-1961]
Swedish landscape artist
Country cobble road, 1909.
Oil on canvas
? x ? inches
Signed at lower right : ‘H. Sundström / 09’.
Biography
Born as the younger daughter to Carl Rudolf Sundström (1841-1889) and Carolina Sofia Häggström (1849–1943), Harriet Sundström grew up in an intellectual environment. Both her parents were educators, with her father being a respected ornithologist and zoologist, while her mother worked as a journalist and foreign editor for Stockholms-Tidningen. Her older sister, Ellen Ammann (1870–1932), would later co-found the German Catholic Women’s Association.
Sundström pursued her passion for art, attending the Tekniska Skolan in Stockholm before continuing her studies in Paris at the Académie Colarossi under the tutelage of renowned artists Franz Roubaud and Heinrich von Zügel. Further honing her skills, she also studied with Charles Tooby in Munich and apprenticed under the famous Swedish artist Anders Zorn.
A prominent figure in the art world, Sundström became a member of the influential art group “De Frie” and founded the organization Originalträsnitt in 1911. Between 1928 and 1937, she served as the vice president of Grafiska Sällskapet. Sundström’s artwork can be found in prestigious institutions such as the Nationalmuseum, Moderna Museet, Zornmuseet, as well as museums in Malmö and Norrköping, and at the Konstakademien.
Harriet Sundström passed away in Stockholm in 1961, leaving behind a legacy of stunning landscape art. Her work is easily recognizable by her distinctive signature, which often appears as “HS” or “H.Sundström”.