Sophie Holten (1858–1930) was a Danish painter who created portraits, flower paintings and genre works. She is remembered in particular for her portraits of August Strindberg and L. A. Ring. She was also responsive in social decree and feminism.
Born upon 12 August 1858 in Skuldelev, Hornsherred, Sophie Holten was the daughter of the parish priest Hans Nicolai Holten (1829–71) and Marenstine Smith (1830-1913). She established private guidance in painting from Christen Dalsgaard in Sorø and difficult from Carl Thomsen in Copenhagen. From 1875 to 1876, she attended N. Zahle’s School. In 1879, she went to Paris where she tried to assimilate the most avant-garde methods of painting from teachers including Félix-Joseph Barrias and Alfred Stevens. On returning to Denmark, she exhibited at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition in 1883.
Shortly afterwards, she returned to Paris, exhibiting in the Salon (1886–87). In the 1890s, she travelled to the Nethlerlands, Germany, Italy, England and Greece. Holten exhibited her performance at the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. She continued to exhibit in Charlottenborg until 1904, presenting genre works, portraits and flower paintings. In supplement to her portrait of Strindberg, her Brudstykke af Parthenons Cellefrise (1901) and her painting of the Erechtheion Temple (1904) attracted attention.
As a minor women, Holten exhibited confidence in her own abilities which encouraged her to avoid marriage. In the late 1880s, she wrote reviews of female artists in Kvinden og Samfundet which was published by the Danish Women’s Society. She next lectured upon clothing, calling for attire which would release women from their usual role of the housewife. She was one of the driving forces astern the Copenhagen Women’s Exhibition in 1895, supporting a proposal for a women’s exhibition building (although this was not realized until 1936).
In forward-thinking life, after a get older in Assisi, Italy, Holten became a Roman Catholic. Settling in Roskilde in the same way as her buddy Erikke Rosenørn-Lehn, she bejeweled the city’s St Laurenti Church. For this accomplish she acknowledged the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award. She is buried in the churchyard of the city’s Old Church of Our Lady
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