Gerda WEGENER (1885-1940)
Couple in coffee
Watercolor on paper, signed on the top left.
57 x 48 cm (at sight).8
Daughter of a protestant priest, Gerda Wegener shows very early artistic talents. She takes painting lessons from Viggo Simesen. In 1902, she leaves for Copenhagen to prepare her examination at the Academy of Fine Arts. At the age of 18 she married her colleague at the Academy, Einar Wegener, who later became a woman after an operation and adopted the name Lili Elbe. From 1912 the couple lived in Paris, where she worked for magazines such as La Vie Parisienne, Fantasio, Journal de Mode and Montjoie. She also exhibited at Salons. Her elegant Art Deco style is very successful, but her daring eroticism causes a lot of controversy. In the 1930s, she lived mainly in Morocco with her second husband, but divorced in 1938 and returned to Copenhagen where she died of a heart attack at the age of 54. The story of this extraordinary couple inspired David Ebershoff's book Danish Girl, which was later adapted for the cinema.
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