Júlíana Sveinsdóttir

Júlíana Sveinsdóttir (31 July 1889 – 17 April 1966) was one of Iceland's first female painters and textile artists. Taught initially by prominent Icelandic artist Þórarinn B. Þorláksson, Júlíana settled in Denmark and returned to Iceland in the summers, the visits inspiring her landscape paintings, one of which won the Eckersberg Medal in 1947.

Júlíana was an active supporter of artists and the arts. She was an early member of the Danish Female Artists' Society, and sat on the boards of the Charlottenborg Exhibition and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Though best known for her painting, Júlíana Sveinsdóttir was also a significant artist working in textiles, her commissions including a rug that decorated the court chamber of the Supreme Court in Copenhagen.

Learning to paint; leaving Iceland Júlíana was born in Vestmannaeyjar (the Westman Islands), off the southern coast of Iceland, on 31 July 1889.

Júlíana's interest in art was sparked at school, and by the time she was twenty she had received lessons from one of Iceland's most famous twentieth century artists Þórarinn B. Þorláksson, and travelled to Copenhagen to study in several private drawing schools, and finally the Royal Danish Academy of Art. She was intensely conscious of her heritage, writing "I have always wanted to bring my works back home and defend myself. Yes, defend my absence from the country, show people what I've done, remind them that I'm woven from a more Icelandic thread than anyone else". The goals of the KKS included increasing female representation on decision-making bodies, improving access for women to grants, as well as providing a social and artist network. From all of these things Júlíana benefitted. From 1941 to 1949 she was on the board of the Charlottenborg Exhibition, and in 1955 she was elected to the board of the Danish Royal Academy of Art: neither of these had had any female board members when the KKS had been founded. including a piece which won the Gold Medal at the Italian Triennial in Milan, in 1951, the first design award won by an Icelander in an international exhibition. Júlíana Sveinsdóttir was later commissioned by the Danish State Artwork Fund to create a rug that decorated the court chamber of the Supreme Court in Copenhagen.

The craters of Mercury are named after artists. Following the first Mercury fly-by of NASA spacecraft MESSENGER, one of the newly discovered craters was named after Júlíana Sveinsdóttir.

Awards 1946: Tagea Brandt travel stipend 1947: Eckersberg Medal 1951: Gold Medal, Italian Triennial, Milan