Margareta Alströmer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Margareta Hedvig Alströmer, as married Cronstedt af Fullerö, (1763-1816), was a Swedish (amateur) painter and singer and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

[edit] Biography

Margareta Alströmer was born the child of the baron, statesman and amateur musician Patrick Alströmer and was from 1781 married to generalmajor count Nils August Cronstedt af Fullerö.

Alströmer was described as a "skillfull dilettant in the art of painting" and was elected as a member of the Academay of Arts with a large majority in 1795. She was also a popular singer and the same year, she was also elected in to the Academy of Music. Before her, no female amateur artist had ben elected to the Musical Academy, only professional artists, such as Elisabeth Olin in 1782, but the in 1795, Alströmer was elected with Christina Fredenheim (1762-41) and Anna Brita Wendelius (1741-04), followed in 1801 by the siblings Sophia (1773-58) and Emilie (1880-63) Brandel and Marie Antoinette Petersén (1771-55). In the Academy of Arts, Wendela Gustafva Sparre (1772-1855), another "dilettant" artist, and noblewoman, was elected to the academy in 1797.

Her husband was in 1788 sentenced to arcebusation but pardoned and imprisoned on the fortress of Varberg, from where he was later releaced by order of Duke Charles.