[1] Emma Josepha Sparre née Munktell was born at Grycksbo in Dalarna County, Sweden.

[4] She was married to fellow artist Baron Carl Axel Ambjörn Sparre (1839–1910) from 1870 to 1891.

[6][7][8] She attended the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm and was trained privately by August Malmström.

She also trained in Paris with painters Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret and Gustave Courtois at Académie Colarossi.

Sparre exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.