Discover the artist behind the beloved painting Breakfast Time. Hanna Hirsch Pauli is one of the most ‘famous unknown’ painters in Nordic art from the turn of the 20th century. This exhibition presents a comprehensive picture of her work for the first time. It also gives you the chance to get to know Hanna Hirsch Pauli as both an artist and a person.

Hanna Hirsch Pauli painted iconic works, including a groundbreaking portrait of her artist friend Venny Soldan in the Parisian studio they shared, and the atmospheric outdoor scene Breakfast Time, inspired by French impressionism. Broader audiences are still unfamiliar with most of Hirsch Pauli’s oeuvre, though, and the painter’s fascinating life story remains largely uncharted territory.

Portrait of Hanna Hirsch Pauli.

Hanna Hirsch Pauli, Portrait of Venny Soldan-Brofeldt, 1886-87. Gothenburg Museum of Art. Photo: Hossein Sehatlou/Gothenburg Museum of Art.

Hanna Hirsch Pauli, Friends, 1900-1907. Nationalmuseum.

Hanna Hirsch Pauli, Breakfast Time, 1887. Nationalmuseum

The exhibition features more than 120 artworks, which span a period of over 60 years. They range from famous paintings created during Hirsch Pauli's breakthrough period in the 1880s, to symbolist landscapes, intimate portrayals of her family, interior scenes depicting the artist’s powerful network of women, and self-portraits created at the end of her life.

Drawing on new research and sensational archival findings, Nationalmuseum is proud to present the first-ever comprehensive monographic exhibition of Hanna Hirsch Pauli’s work in the summer and autumn of 2025.