From the Park at Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia

Narrator: 

In the summer of 1827, a young Swedish woman goes for a walk in a park in the hills outside Rome with a sketchpad and pencil. 

The woman's name is Evalina Stading. 

And she is about to fulfill her dream of becoming a painter. 

Cynthia Osiecki:  

She distinguished herself very early, because she was so motivated to become an artist. At that time, it wasn’t a normal or expected thing, that women could become artists. 

Narrator: 

Cynthia Osiecki is an art historian at the National Museum. She says that Evalina Stading was not only unusual because she wanted to paint, but because she wanted to become a landscape painter - that's not what female artists were supposed to do… 

Cynthia Osiecki:  

In her time, women were supposed to stay at home and always have someone with them when they would go out. 

It wasn’t proper for a woman to travel alone in the mountains and be left in nature. Because women were expected to paint flowers and fruit, and maybe portraits.  

Narrator: 

But Stading wanted something more. She traveled throughout Europe, first to Dresden and later to Italy. 

Here she was noticed and given an important mission - to paint a large picture of the park at Palazzo Chigi outside Rome. 

What we have before us here is one of the preliminary studies for a large painting. 

Cynthia Osiecki:  

She works a lot with light in this painting, because she’s in Italy. Here, the light filters through the forest. She creates such a contrast, and you can still feel you’re in Italy with the light she expresses. 

Sadly, she was not able to make this painting in a larger size because she fell ill and died in 1829 in Rome. She didn't get to accomplish her mission. 

Narrator: 

But this preliminary painting was bought by the Norwegian painter J.C. Dahl. And when he sold parts of his art collection to the National Gallery, Evalina Stading became one of the first female artists in the gallery's history.