Biography: childhood, education and marriage
Childhood and education as a drawing mistress
Sigrid Hjertén was born in Sundsvall in 1885 into an upper-class
family. Her father was a lawyer. Sigrid's mother died when Sigrid
was only two years old, which maybe influenced her further development.
Sigrid Hjertén studied at the College of Crafts and Design
in Stockholm. She graduated as a drawing mistress and designed textiles
for Selma Gišbel.
Meeting Isaac Grunewald
At a studio party in 1909 Sigrid meets the twenty-year old Isaac
Grunewald. Isaac had already studied one year with Matisse in Paris,
and he convinces Sigrid that she would do herself more justice as
a painter.
Childbirth and marriage
 Later
that year Sigrid too goes to Matisse's art school. After one year
and a half she returns to Sweden. Sigrid discovers that she is having
a child with Isaac, whom she marries. The pregnancy is unintentional,
and Sigrid for a long time believes that the signs of pregnancy
are "muscular indurations of the stomach". Not until the seventh
month of pregnancy is Sigrid informed by her doctor that she is
expecting a child. Sigrid seems to have been a stranger to her own
body, a fact that may have contributed to the difficulties in her
relation with Isaac.
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