Anna Syberg, née Hansen, grew up in a vibrant and artistic home and received her first lessons as an artist from her father, master painter Peter Syrak Hansen (1833–1904), at the Technical School in Faaborg. She subsequently went to Copenhagen, where she received lessons in drawing and painting and got a job as a decorative painter at the Royal Porcelain Factory. In 1894, she married the painter Fritz Syberg (1862–1939), and they settled together on Funen, where they created a joint artist's home and was part of the formation of the community of artists called Fynboerne (The Funen Painters), together with, among others, Anna Syberg’s brother Peter Hansen (1868–1928).

Even though Anna and Fritz Syberg had seven children, Anna participated actively in exhibition activities in Copenhagen, as the couple shared the childcare, and she was, among other things, represented at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition, the Artists’ Autumn Exhibition and the exhibition 6 Female Artists at Den Frie Udstilling. When Anna Syberg died of complications from cholecystitis in 1914, she was only 44 years old and in the process of breaking through as an artist. She only really achieved artistic recognition the year after her death, when Kunstforeningen organized a large-scale retrospective exhibition of her works. The exhibition was a great success and several works were acquired by Faaborg Museum.

Today, Anna Syberg is described as an innovator of flower painting and praised for her ability to bring flowers and plants to life on paper. Watercolour painting became her preferred working method and hallmark, and she found her motifs in flowers and plants in and around her home. From her time as a porcelain painter, she had developed a layer-on-layer technique, which she transferred to her watercolour painting, and she built up her motifs in layers of pencil, bright watercolours, and dark contours of drawing ink.

Next year, The Hirschsprung Collection shows the exhibition “Anna Syberg – The Beauty of the Moment” (11 January to 21 May 2023). The exhibition was previously shown at Faaborg Museum in 2020.