The Sowing Woman statue in Gothenburg

The statue of the sowing woman, known as Såningskvinnan, stands in Gothenburg. Standing 1.75 metres tall and unveiled in 1883, this sculpture is thought of as the second oldest statue in Gothenburg and its first female statue. She is depicted with mild Nordic forms and a cloth draped over her waist, sowing seeds from her right hand which she is taking out of a basket with her left.

The project began with a 10,000 krona donation in 1878 from Rittmeister Carl Krook, which was intended for a fountain at Brunnsparken. Because the money was not enough for the desired artefact, John West Wilson and Pontus Fürstenberg offered to add the missing amount to erect a fountain based on a prize-winning model by sculptor Per Hasselberg. The completed work stands 7.5 metres tall and consists of a granite basin, a bronze shell, and a three-metre octagonal column with eight lion heads that serve as water emitters.

The bronze components were cast by Gruet Jeunes in Paris before being placed in Brunnsparken. The local community calls her Johanna, a name potentially linked to her unveiling on the name day of Johanna or to Johanna Ekstein, a dancer at the Stora Teatern who is said to have served as the model for Hasselberg. Carl Larsson depicted the statue in a painting titled Interiör från Fürstenbergska galleriet in 1887.

The statue remains a centerpiece of the square. It was taken down in autumn 2015 for a total renovation of the fountain basin and the column. It was reinstated on 10 March 2016 after being cleaned, waxed, and partly reconstructed.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons