Victorine Nordenswan

Victorine Nordenswan (14 June 1838 – 25 August 1872) was a Finnish painter in the Düsseldorf tradition, specialising in religious themes, and notable as one of the first professional female artists of Finland.

Early life and education Hildur Antoinette Victorine Nordenswan was born on 1 June 1838 in Hämeenlinna, Grand Duchy of Finland, the third child and second daughter of Jacobina Fredrica von Numers (1808–1879) and embassy counsellor Johan Henrik Nordenswan (1801–1862).

Nordenswan received her initial education at a girls' school in Hämeenlinna, followed by attending an art school run by painters Berndt Godenhjelm (1799–1881) and Erik Johan Löfgren in the early 1860s. She trained at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm in 1860–1862. In 1864 she went to Düsseldorf, where she became a private pupil of Otto Mengelberg and Eduard Gebhardt.

Nordenswan's promising career was cut short by her death from tuberculosis at the early age of 34.

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