Sigrid "Siri" Sofia Matilda Elisabet von Essen (17 August 1850 â€" 22
April 1912) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish noblewoman and actress. Her
acting career spanned about 15 years, during which time she appeared
in a number of plays that the Swedish dramatist and writer August
Strindberg wrote specifically for her.She was born in Porvoo, the
daughter of the noble Finnish-Swedish captain, landowner and nobleman
Carl Reinhold von Essen and Elisabeth Charlotta In de Betou. She
married Major Baron Carl Gustaf Wrangel af Sauss (1842â€"1913) in
1872, with whom she had a daughter, Sigrid. They divorced in 1876.In
1877, she married the Swedish dramatist and writer August Strindberg.
At the time, her marriage to Strindberg was considered a scandal
because although von Essen's first husband had committed adultery,
Strindberg was blamed for the dissolution of their marriage. A
contributing factor to the scandal was the fact that Strindberg was
considered socially unsuitable as a husband for a member of the
nobility. Together they had four children: three daughters, Kerstin
(born 1878), died shortly after birth, Karin Smirnov (born 1880) and
Greta (born 1881), and a son, Hans (born 1884 in Lausanne,
Switzerland). They divorced in 1891, after Strindberg had suspected
von Essen of having a long-term affair with her close friend, the
Danish woman Marie David; Strindberg's jealousy and dislike of David
caused severe discord in the marriage during its last years. The
troubled marriage between von Essen and Strindberg was a source of
material for a number of Strindberg's plays, which often feature
unhappy relationships, as well as for Strindberg's novel Defence of a
Fool, which he began in 1887. In 1919, a selection of their
correspondence from 1875 to 1876 was published under the title He and
Her; Strindberg had aimed to have this selection printed already in
the mid-1880s as a sequel to his autobiographical novel The Son of the
Servant Woman, but his publishers had refused.Von Essen moved to
Finland in 1893.
April 1912) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish noblewoman and actress. Her
acting career spanned about 15 years, during which time she appeared
in a number of plays that the Swedish dramatist and writer August
Strindberg wrote specifically for her.She was born in Porvoo, the
daughter of the noble Finnish-Swedish captain, landowner and nobleman
Carl Reinhold von Essen and Elisabeth Charlotta In de Betou. She
married Major Baron Carl Gustaf Wrangel af Sauss (1842â€"1913) in
1872, with whom she had a daughter, Sigrid. They divorced in 1876.In
1877, she married the Swedish dramatist and writer August Strindberg.
At the time, her marriage to Strindberg was considered a scandal
because although von Essen's first husband had committed adultery,
Strindberg was blamed for the dissolution of their marriage. A
contributing factor to the scandal was the fact that Strindberg was
considered socially unsuitable as a husband for a member of the
nobility. Together they had four children: three daughters, Kerstin
(born 1878), died shortly after birth, Karin Smirnov (born 1880) and
Greta (born 1881), and a son, Hans (born 1884 in Lausanne,
Switzerland). They divorced in 1891, after Strindberg had suspected
von Essen of having a long-term affair with her close friend, the
Danish woman Marie David; Strindberg's jealousy and dislike of David
caused severe discord in the marriage during its last years. The
troubled marriage between von Essen and Strindberg was a source of
material for a number of Strindberg's plays, which often feature
unhappy relationships, as well as for Strindberg's novel Defence of a
Fool, which he began in 1887. In 1919, a selection of their
correspondence from 1875 to 1876 was published under the title He and
Her; Strindberg had aimed to have this selection printed already in
the mid-1880s as a sequel to his autobiographical novel The Son of the
Servant Woman, but his publishers had refused.Von Essen moved to
Finland in 1893.
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