Vera Nilsson’s drawings in the Moderna Museet Collection

Moderna Museet has a rich collection of works by the artist Vera Nilsson. The collection spans her entire seventy-year career, and contains more than 4,800 objects: sketches, drawings and paintings. In a two-year research project, starting in 2024, we will examine Vera Nilsson’s drawing practice.

In the research project, we examine how Vera Nilsson (1888–1979) worked with drawing as a way of collecting and preserving various impressions from her immediate surroundings. By following her work process from sketch to monumental work, we can take part in how the drawings functioned both as a memory and as independent stories.

In Vera Nilsson’s imagery, we encounter strong stories, which contain both the nearby and the grand and worldwide. She documented her everyday life and used her position as an artist to tell us about people she met, including children, students and workers. In this respect, she was both a traditionalist and a progressive drawer.

Through her well-developed ability to observe, Vera Nilsson shows us the great social changes of the 20th century. She turned the global issues, with a focus on everyone’s equal value and rights, into themes such as the world citizen, disarmament and resistance.

The research results are planned to be part of Moderna Museet’s comprehensive exhibition of Vera Nilsson’s oeuvre which will open in 2027. The exhibition will present a selection of paintings, drawings and sketches from, e.g., the early works of the Paris years to her later public commissions.

Do you have works by or connected to Vera Nilsson?

You can help us map out Vera Nilsson’s production. Contact us if you have drawings, sketches, paintings, photographs or other archival material connected to the artist. The research project runs from 2024 to 2026.