Tyra Kleen

Tyra Kleen (Sweden, 1874 – 1951) was a Swedish painter, illustrator, printmaker and women's rights activist. Her paintings and prints belonged to the Swedish fin de siècle art movement, but her most lasting contribution was her ethnographic research on Bali and Java.

Training and early years in Europe

The daughter of a diplomat and writer, she was raised largely by her grandfather, as her parents were often away. She studied painting in Karlsruhe and Munich and, between 1895 and 1897, at several academies in Paris. Her figurative style drew on Art Nouveau, symbolism and artists such as Böcklin and Puvis de Chavannes, as well as on Theosophy. In 1898 she moved to Rome, where she spent a decade among the cultural elite of the time.

Bali, Java and the study of mudras

In 1919 she travelled to Java and Bali. With Beata van Helsdingen-Schoevers she worked on a study of the ritual court dances of Solo, a project marked by conflict that was finally published in 1925. In Bali, with the help of Piet de Kat Angelino, she documented mudras, the ritual hand poses of Balinese Hindu priests. The result was the book Mudras, with her own text and illustrations, and in 1922 the exhibition Två vittberesta damer in Stockholm, which started the so-called Bali fever in Sweden.

Reception and legacy

Her work brought her international recognition, and in 1938 she received the Johan August Wahlberg silver medal. However, Walter Spies's harsh review of her book on the temple dances reduced attention to her ethnographic work for years, and her name became tied to magazine illustration. Her collections went to the Swedish House of Nobility, and in 2001 her paintings and diaries were made public.