Marie Triepcke Kroyer Alfven

Marie Krøyer was a Danish painter and ceramist who developed her own naturalistic style, often painting sea birds, animals, plants and beach scenes. She was born in Frederiksberg in 1867, where her father was a technical director at a loomery. She showed an interest in painting from an early age and was sent to Paris to study under Gustave Courtois, Alfred Roll and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. She met P. S. Krøyer in 1889 and married him that summer. They settled in Skagen, where they became part of the artists' colony known as the Skagen Painters. Marie was also a co-founder of the Danish Society of Female Artists in 1916. Her marriage with Krøyer became difficult as he suffered from mental illness and she had an affair with the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén. She divorced Krøyer in 1905 and married Alfvén in 1912. They lived in Sweden, where Marie also worked as a ceramist and a designer. She divorced Alfvén in 1936 and died in 1940.