Cora Sandel

Translator's Note: This is a machine-assisted translation completed on March 10, 2025. While care has been taken to maintain accuracy, this translation has not yet undergone human review or validation. Please note that specialized terms, historical references, and nuanced content may benefit from expert review.

From painting dreams in Paris to literary success in Sweden – Sara Fabricius, under the name Cora Sandel, created some of Norway's most renowned novels. Her trilogy about the artist Alberte Selmer gave voice to women's struggle for freedom and identity in the early 20th century, while also exploring themes such as loneliness, sexuality, and artistic development.

Cora Sandel (pseudonym for Sara Fabritius) was born in Oslo in 1880, spent her youth in Tromsø, and passed away in Uppsala in 1974. She went to Kristiania (now Oslo) and attended Harriet Backer’s art school for a while, returned to Tromsø, and, at the age of 25, traveled to Paris in 1905. Sara Fabritius lived in Paris for 15 years and initially intended to make a living as a painter, but she became a writer instead. In 1913, she married the Swedish sculptor Anders Jönsson and became Mrs. Jönsson. They moved to Sweden in 1921 and separated the following year. It was in 1922 that Sara Fabritius first used the pseudonym Cora Sandel in a newspaper short story. She lived in Sweden for the rest of her life.

Cora Sandel is best known for the three novels about Alberte Selmer, a trilogy detailing a female artist’s development, inspired by Cora Sandel’s own life: Alberte and Jacob (1926), Alberte and the freedom (1931), and Bare Alberte (1939). The name Alberte might well have been inspired by Christian Krohg’s Albertine, a novel that left a strong impression on her. Also worth mentioning is the novel Krane’s Café (1945), which became a theatrical success at Det Norske Teatret the following year, dramatized by Helge Krog. The film adaptation came in 1951, and Fjernsynsteatret aired the play in 1963.

Like Sigrid Undset in Jenny (1911) and Hulda Garborg in Gaaden (1916), Cora Sandel presents a foreign lesbian painter in the novel Alberte and the freedom (1931). Set in Paris around 1912, the persistent Wolochinska does not give up hope of wooing the shy Mademoiselle Alberte Selmer. Alberte must pass Wolochinska’s apartment to reach her own, where Wolochinska ambushes her at the door, saying: "Come in for a moment, have a cigarette with me. We could go out and have dinner together. It would please me..." At the very least, Alberte must come in to see the new painting by the Polish artist.

But Alberte refuses, claiming she is busy, and hurries upstairs. "Behind her, Wolochinska shouts: You’re mean! Mean! Don’t you know what loneliness is?" Alberte takes two steps at a time and shouts back: "Yes, Alberte shouts: Yes, Mademoiselle." Loneliness is something Alberte knows a lot about, but she is also deeply upset by the unfamiliar feelings she is experiencing. Once inside her room, she sits on her bed "with her hands pressed against her heart as if to keep it under control."

A few pages later, Wolochinska reappears in the doorway, "tall and slender, in a kimono," calling for her, "Mademoiselle Selmer." It is August, and Paris is very warm.

"Come in, have a cold drink with me. I was just about to order one. Make yourself comfortable here for a while. Look at me—" With a large, beautiful hand, Wolochinska smooths down her body. Her slim figure is clearly outlined under the thin fabric, with large embroidered storks adorning it. Alberte pauses. She feels a pang of guilt for not being kinder to Wolochinska. Loneliness can be very cruel.

Alberte decides to enter Wolochinska’s apartment, and they have a long conversation. Wolochinska mentions that she is heading to the countryside, having rented a small house, and invites Alberte along. Alberte is immediately overwhelmed by mixed emotions, "at once scared and tempted by the bait in the trap." Yet, even this time, Alberte does not surrender to the Polish artist’s persistent kindness, which she neither fully understands nor reciprocates. However, Wolochinska doesn’t relent: "She grabs Alberte by the shoulders, looks into her eyes with her hard, blue gaze. Alberte barely has time to feel her unease turn into fear—when suddenly, she has received a fierce, commanding kiss directly on the lips. Like being stung by a wasp, she jerks her head back—" Alberte feels unwell, wishes Wolochinska a pleasant summer, and quickly exits. Behind her, Wolochinska calls out: "Little fool. Little cold fool from the North. What did you think? You have a nervous ailment, Mademoiselle Selmer—" In her room, Alberte mutters to herself: "And I can’t deal with things like this," she says out loud.

It is possible that Alberte cannot deal with lesbians, but author Cora Sandel certainly knew they existed, having lived in Paris for a long time and having "truly loved a writer" there—namely, the French bisexual Colette. Sandel wrote about this in a long memorial article about Colette in Bonniers literary magazine (1954), expressing warm admiration for Colette and her many books. When the novel La Vagabonde was released in 1910, partially based on Colette’s own life, Sandel translated the book into Norwegian. However, being no longer fluent in the language, the novel wasn’t published until 1952, under the title Omstreifersken.

Colette wrote numerous books, including a series of partially autobiographical novels about Claudine, a bisexual character inspired by the author. Besides writing, Colette performed as a variety artist, including pantomime. Onstage at the Moulin Rouge, she caused a stir by kissing another woman and baring one breast. Sandel watched the latter performance repeatedly. For a while, Colette was also romantically involved with Natalie Clifford Barney, a famous American lesbian writer. At the same time, Cora Sandel greatly admired another female artist, the bisexual dancer Isadora Duncan, who performed frequently in Paris. Duncan often danced barefoot, revolutionizing European dance with her "free dance." Cora Sandel herself longed to dance: "From the beginning, I wanted to dance. From the first time I saw dance, circus performers, ballet dancers. [...] In Paris, I ran to see everything I could, the Russian ballet, Isadora Duncan, Colette. If only there had been any opportunity." (Øverland 1983)

In 1995, Janneken Øverland wrote a biography about Cora Sandel. It was strongly contested by perhaps Norway’s most prominent literary critic, Toril Moi, in an op-ed in Bergens Tidende titled "Life Without the Work." Moi argued that for a biographer aiming to capture the breadth of a human mind, a writer’s way of handling significant themes should be as relevant as their life. Toril Moi called for a deeper exploration of Cora Sandel’s admiration for and infatuation with Colette, asserting that only the authorship itself can tell us something interesting about Colette’s real role and inspiration for Cora Sandel. Moi lamented the lack of answers to "the question of whether Sandel might have been less ‘straight’ and heterosexual than dominant ideology would like to suggest." Even if it were biographically clear that Sandel did not have a single sexual relationship with a woman, "a more literary-focused biography could afford to examine the sexuality in Sandel’s texts to possibly shed light on this enigmatic subject." (Moi 1995)

In 1939, a younger woman entered Cora Sandel’s life—doctor and psychiatrist Eva Lagerwall (1898–1960). They became close friends and, at times, lived together in Stockholm and Uppsala until Eva Lagerwall passed away in 1960. In the summer of 1950, they spent a month-long stay in Tromsø. On the beach in Telegrafbukta, Lagerwall picked up a small round stone that she gave to Sandel one day when she was feeling a bit down. That stone remained on Cora Sandel’s desk, reminding her of the place she called home and the close friend she lost too soon.