Modern Art & Design presents Sankta Birgittaskolan

A retrograde exception at The Stockholm Exhibition 1930Stockholm Exhibition 1930

Emmy Fick worked during the first decades of the 20th century in the Nordic Company's (NK) textile department. In 1908, Fick received a scholarship that would pay for a year's studies in tailoring at The House of Woth. The House of Woth was the leading fashion house of the time. Fick and colleague Elisabeth Glantzberg decided to combine their creativity and started the Birgitta School in 1910. They were each other's opposites, Fick more of a traditionalist and Elisabeth Glantzberg more avant-garde.

The school was divided after only four years into two different schools with similar names - "Sankta Birgittaskolan" and "Birgittaskolan". Fick came to lead the "Sankta Birgittaskolan" and had several clients from the Swedish ruling classes , while Glantzberg came to lead the "Birgittaskolan", which had an egalitarian view and was appreciated by the 'self-sufficient and educated women'.

Around 1930, several tapestrys where designed at Sankta Birgittaskolan, also lot 134 which will be sold in these rooms on November 19 . A common denominator were striking pictoral compositions with detailed appliqué work. During the same period, Fick collaborated with the artist Ossian Elgström. "Leif Eriksson discovers Vinland" was woven in 1929 and 1930 at Sankta Birgittaskolan after a design by Ossian Elgström for the newly married couple Count and Countess Folke and Estelle Bernadotte. The auctions tapestry was designed by Ruth Fischer with a motif taken from Selma Lagerlöf's book "The Legend of Christmas Roses". The pieces was exhibited at the Stockholm exhibition in 1930.