Anyone who has ever received a Christmas greeting card in the mailbox is familiar with her motifs: gnomes in the snow, gnomes with gifts, gnomes with porridge, children throwing snowballs. Jenny Nyström, one might say, illustrated the Swedish Christmas.

But that is far from the whole story. In the late 19th century, she belonged to the progressive circle of artists who sought to reform the institutional frameworks for painters and sculptors in Sweden.She received most of her education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Thanks to a scholarship, she continued her studies in Paris, where in 1884 she exhibited at the annual Salon de Paris. The following year she joined the progressive group known as the Opponents. Alongside this, she began to make a name for herself as an illustrator.And it is primarily in that capacity that we now encounter her at Stockholms Auktionsverk in Gothenburg. In a tightly curated selection, we are invited into her winter world, where two cover designs for Guldslottet stand out as the likely highlights.

But the auction also embraces other sides of Nyström’s artistry, expressed both in vibrant watercolours and in a more subdued greyscale with touches of gouache.