Maria Widebeck

Maria Cecilia Widebeck (1858–1929) was a Swedish textile artist and illustrator who assisted her friend Carin Wästberg to revive interest in fabrics inspired by local peasant techniques.

Widebeck made most of the illustrations presented in Klingspor's book on coats of arms and family crests.

Thanks to a travel grant, in 1891 together with Wästberg she spent three months in England where they both took a special interest in the work of the textile designer William Morris (1834–1896), thereafter adopting his approach to arts and crafts In Sweden.

[1] In 1905, Widebeck was appointed director of the Friends of Handicraft association's museum and archives.

Her skill as an illustrator is evidenced by some 4,000 drawings of coats of arms and family crests contained in Carl Arvid Klingspor's Sveriges ridderskaps och adels vapenbok.