Anna Albertina Elisabeth Bergstrand-Poulsen

1887 - 1955

Sweden

Anna Albertina Elisabeth Bergstrand-Poulson was the daughter of an organist in Långasjö parish in Kronoberg county. She trained as a painter at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, but moved to Denmark after marrying the Danish sculptor Axel Poulsen.

Elisabeth Bergstrand-Poulsen’s books, which consist mainly of romantic descriptions of ordinary life centering on the harsh lives of women, are dedicated to the Swedish countryside. Her most notable book is Värendskvinnor från Långasjö socken i bilder och ord, 1925. Her autobiography, powerfully entitled Hök, får jag låna dina vingar, 1940, revolves around watercolour painting and, most of all, the original house she built and set up together with her husband.