Women's Modern Breakthrough in European Art with Sara Alfort and Lene Bøgh Rønberg

Join an inspiring conversation about the women who revolutionized the art world in the late 19th century. From the 1880s, Scandinavian female artists traveled to Munich, Paris, and Rome to paint, exhibit, and create art on equal terms with men. They challenged the norms of the era, lived from their work, and made European artistic life their own – but what was it really like to be an artist in a male-dominated world?

Curator and research project leader Lene Bøgh Rønberg and author and journalist Sara Alfort explore this pioneering generation and their response to modernity. They examine how women's emergence as creative artists – not merely as models – changed artistic development, and how their stories offer new perspectives on art history. The conversation is moderated by Sanne Gram Fadel, DR's leading editor for foreign affairs.

The event is based on the books Women's Modern Breakthrough 1880-1910 (Aarhus University Press 2024) and When the Trees Grew into the Sky (Gads Publishing 2025). The event is part of the Folk University's Europe project, supported by the Carlsberg Foundation.