The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1913-03-06
Anna Boberg Braves Rigorous
Winters of North to Paint.
Artist Took Pot Luck With the Hum.
BILE Fisher Folk in Pursuit of Her
Adopted Profession-Woman
Was Tenderly Reared.

of the Lofoton islands is where Anna
Boberg lives and paints. She draws
her inspiration from the Arctic sea.
For several months of each year this
delicately nurtured woman of gay
Stockholm braves such hardships as
men endure in order to put q new dot
on the map or to plant the flag OF
their country where flag never waved
before. She has made herself the
little sister of the fisherman, living
their lives of privation and listening
to their tales of draugs and elves and
all the hostile forces of nature. she
has faced the flashing of the winter
storraB and dreamed IN the glory of
the summer nights.
Anna Boberg's father was distin-
guished architect, says the Craftsman.
Her husband, Ferdinand Boberg, is
also an architect and one of the fore
most in Europe.
In the beginning she took pot luck
with the fishermen. She slept when
ever a bed was to be had and did not
inquire too squeamishly. At some
posts the local trader is required by
law to furnish beds for Travellers; in
other places she was met by a curt
denial. caused not SO much by UNI
kindness as by awe of her supposed
fine ladyism. But it needed only a
pleasant word to the old man ut the
fireside--or baby handled in her lap
or kind word to the mother-and
the house was hers, with all that it
contained. There was her spoon to
dip in the common porringer and her
share of the potatoes and sailed her.
ring. There was bench, If nothing
better, where she could roll herself
in blanket and sleep as we'll as pos
sible in a room with mother, father
and various sizes of children.
To give her as much of home as
possible, under the circumstances and
save her from unnecessary hardships
Mr.. Boberg has built her studio near
the fishing station at Svolvar.
When there is good haul before
| the fishermen of Lofoten, necessitat-
! ing long hours of night work, Mrs.
Boberg allows no consideration for
her own comfort to interfere with the
work that means their livelihood.
Often she helps to throw q net or
hold a tiller. She has constructed a
special type of palette and easel.
which can be strapped to her person,
so that she can paint on q rocking
boat and miss no shifting play of sun
and wind on the churning sea. Her
costSlme, too, is of her own invention
Skirts are left behind among the lux
uries of the mainland. Instead she
wears in winter fur trousers coming
up to her armpits, with fur jacket
and close fitting cap that leaves
only her eyes and mouth free. For
painting she cuts the fingers and
palms from her fur gloves. When the
snow is soft she straps skis to her
| feet to keep from sinking deep into it.,
as she stands at work, often In a
whirling snowstorm. till the paint
freezes, and her stiffening fingers can
hold brush no longer. Then she is
glad to escape with nothing more seri'
Gus than frosted fingers or face.
The fishermen laugh at her uniform
and never tire of their joke: "Are you
man or woman?" Sometimes they
venture criticisms such as: "The num-
Der of that boat isn't right-it should
be a six instead of seven" or that
ships too red" Mrs. Boberg enjoys
the criticisms and culls from them
whatever is of value, for she aims to
reproduce with absolute faithfulness
the implements and methods that are
passing with the older generations
During the last ten or twelve years
she has made more than 400 small
sketches, which are carefully pre-
served in Stockholm. not only for
their artistic value. but for the ac'
curacy of detail which make them his
torically valuable. She has also set
herself to the task of gathering all the
weird, wild tales that will soon have
faded even from the minds of the old
salts in Nordland.