Jenny Eugenia Nyström (13 or 15 June 1854 in Kalmar, Sweden – 17 January 1946 in Stockholm) was a painter and illustrator mainly known as the creator of the Swedish image of the jultomte on Christmas cards and magazine covers, thus linking the Swedish version of Santa Claus to the gnomes and tomtar of Scandinavian folklore.
When Jenny Nyström was eight years old, the family moved to Gothenburg, where her father had found a better paying teaching job.
[2] In 1865 she started in the Gothenburg art school Göteborgs Musei-, Rit- och Målarskola, today known as Konsthögskolan Valand, and in 1873 she was admitted to the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm, where she studied for eight years.
It was instead up to Jenny to support herself, her husband and their son through her artistry, while Daniel handled her business affairs.
Likewise, her brother-in-law, Georg Stoopendaal, already in the beginning of the 19th century found postcards to be a good source of income, unlike his more serious paintings, and his Christmas cards are also clearly inspired by Jenny Nyström's.