Gerda Wegener Watercolor for Sale
Robert Mohren
Artist: Gerda Wegener
Work Date:1918
Category: Watercolor
Markings: Signed
Contact for Price: robert...@gmx.de
Telephone: +49 221 925 3002
Cellphone: +49 174 656 3950
History:
Gerda Wegener born as Gerda Gottlieb, the daughter of a clergyman from
a long line of clergymen, was an internationally renowned painter,
portraitist and graphic artist, and one of the very few successful
female artists in history.
La dame à l'anémone is the title of a painting by Gerda Wegener in the
Musée National d'art Moderne, Centre George Pompidou in Paris. The
French State decorated Gerda Wegener with a Legion d'Honneur for her
art. Nonetheless, she died in poverty and obscurity.
When Gerda Wegener arrived in Paris in 1912 the artistic world was in
a period of upheaval. There were exhibitions of paintings which caused
public outcry and even riots. Likewise with music. Ravel's ballet
Daphnis et Chlöe, produced in Paris in 1912, was an object of
controversy, and Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps, which was
produced in Paris in 1913, caused a riot. Gerda Wegener's talent was
protean, and she was industrious. In 1917 at the end of World War One
it would have been possible to see a whole wall covered with her
illustrations and ads in Vogue and other magazines, and to have heard
her husband Einar Wegener explain: "...My wife's drawings were so
popular among the soldiers that they wallpapered their trenches with
clippings. Once when she had given an original drawing to an officer,
he called his comrades together and made a will. The last survivor was
to own the picture. As it turned out, the man who got the picture was
the only one to come out of the war alive..."
In her art, Gerda Wegener recognized decadence as the bearing
principle between romantism and cubism, between art nouveau and art
deco. In her life she was a dynamic personality, energetic, brash, and
ambitious. She deliberately sought economic success and a life
surrounded by the accoutrements of bourgeoise comfort. "Les Arums,"
her high-priced apartment and studio in Paris, was in the fashionable
quartier Tour Eiffel. At the same time she was of a generous and
outgoing nature in the grand manner. At her summer home on the banks
of the Loire she would throw lawn parties for two thousand invited
guests, "half of Paris."
See the Art of Gerda Wegener under: