I Tyra Kleens fotspår : en studie över konstnärens tid i Rom och Paris 1892-1908

This thesis describes and analyzes the symbolist artist Tyra Kleen’s life as a student and professional artist in late 1900th- and early 2000th-century, using biography as methodology, in combination with Pierre Bourdieu’s theories on Cultural Fields, and Feministic theory. A few of her Symbolistic art works will be analyzed using Ragnar Josephson’s theories on the Making of Art. The years in between 1892 – 1908 are in focus of the thesis, when the artist mainly lived, studied and worked abroad; in Germany, Paris and Rome. Tyra Kleen (1874-1951) was born in Sweden, but lived for many years in Europe. She saw herself more as a European or a Cosmopolitan, than a Swedish person. She went to several art schools in Europe; in Dresden, Karlsruhe, Munich, Paris and Rome. She lived in Paris during the years of ”the fine de siècle”, and then moved to Rome where she lived and worked for almost ten years. During her years abroad, with influences from artists as Böcklin and Puvis de Chavannes, authors as Charles Boudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe, and from Theosophy, she picked up a continental Symbolistic style, that is unique, and is not to be found in any other Swedish artists’ styles. The thesis gives a new piece to the puzzle regarding Swedish late 1900th-early 2000th-century Art History.