Gerda Wegener, Danish artist: biography, personal life, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The story of Danish artist Gerda Wegener is an incredible mixture of “pink”, lesbian romance at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Her erotic paintings, which abounded in harlequins, transparent crinoline, obscene poses, made an incredible sensation in a city as freedom-loving and greedy for innovation as Paris. This story ended with the world's first gender reassignment plastic surgery, as a result of which the artist's husband, Einar Wegener, became a woman, making both himself and his ex-wife famous all over the world. However, the desire to become a mother cost Einar-Lili his life.

Gerda Wegener: biography

The future artist was born in the town of Greno, which was located in Danish Jutland, in 1886. At birth, she was named Gerda Gottlieb. Her father was a curate, a native of France, whose family decades ago, in connection with the faith, emigrated from there to conservative Denmark and settled on the coast. Naturally, very strict morals reigned in the family, and the girl received a conservative upbringing. In adolescence, the future artist Gerda Wegener somehowIn this way, she convinced her parents to let her go to study in the capital of the country - the city of Copenhagen. There she entered a college operating at the Royal Women's Academy of Culture and Fine Arts. The girl made quite great progress, and the teachers singled her out as one of their talented students.

Meet your future spouse

At the academy, Gerda met a young man, the artist Einar Wegener, who was four years older than her. Some special relationship arose between them, and soon the young decided to marry each other. The girl was only 19 years old. She was very young and inexperienced. However, after marriage, having settled in a bohemian environment, and in the capital itself, she turned from an innocent provincial and simpleton into an ex alted lady who always wanted to step ahead of her time. She was seriously engaged in art, but her paintings struck many with courage and unpredictability.

In Paris

In 1912 the Wegeners came to live in Paris. In this city, young people were attracted by the freedom and prosperity of the arts. Copenhagen was very stiff and conservative compared to the French capital. Gerda Wegener always complained that there she lacked freedom for creativity. In search of themselves, young artists traveled around Western Europe for a long time, but nevertheless decided to make a stop in Paris. Immediately upon arrival, the couple went to the Hotel d'Alsace and rented a room. When getting acquainted with the hotel, an employee-guide said that it was in the room wheresettled a young couple, in 1900, that is, exactly 12 years ago, the great English writer Oscar Wilde died. Gerda and Einar were both shocked by this, and at the same time they felt some kind of reverent awe from the realization that they are now touching objects that their favorite writer once used, breathing the same air. For several days in a row they read Wilde's works aloud to each other. They were particularly attracted to forbidden sexuality, tragedy and beauty.

Fame

Gerda Wegener's paintings, her illustrations expressed the author's free spirit with their content. Almost all of her paintings depicted the same sensual brown-eyed beauty with a bob haircut and full lips. Who is this mysterious stranger, this model, from whom it is impossible to take your eyes off? When the truth was revealed, the public was shocked: it turned out that this sexy beauty from Gerda's paintings was her husband Einar in disguise.

Alias Lily Elbe

So how did it happen that the artist's husband agreed to pose for his wife, and in a female form? And it all started with the fact that one of Gerda's models could not come to the session, and then she asked her husband Einar, who stood out for some extraordinary femininity, to put on a pair of stockings and high-heeled shoes and replace the model. Wegener, oddly enough, immediately agreed, and he liked it so much that he began to transform into a woman not only during painting sessions, but also in everyday life. Apparently, a woman's self-consciousness woke up in him. He even began to introduce himself as the alleged sister of Einar and be called Lili Elbe. It was very convenient for Gerda to have at hand such a sitter who understood her perfectly. He became her main muse. It was thanks to him that she also became a portrait painter.

Creative activity

After some time, the artist wished to arrange an exhibition, the exposition of which included both her portraits and decadent drawings, which were saturated with eroticism. They caused a resonance in society and even led to public unrest. Gerda also collaborated with the fashion magazine Vogue and created glossy illustrations. She also began to be trusted with illustrations for some books on related topics, such as Casanova's Adventures. Their Parisian studio Les Arums kept throwing wild parties that weren't easy to get into.

Craving for Lily

The most interesting thing was that a very unusual relationship began to develop between Gerda and Einar. They spontaneously began to perceive Lily as a separate person, having nothing to do with Einar. Moreover, Gerda Wegener, speaking about her, used pronouns and verbs in the third person. Sometimes she said to her legal husband: “I want Lily to visit us today.” The most interesting thing is that it was much more pleasant for her to communicate with Lily than with the gloomy Einar. And he, in turn, admitted that it was much more comfortable for him to be in a female form, since in a male one he began to be tormented by depression and had seizures.choking cough. In addition, transforming into Lily, he acquired a new meaning in life, his eyes shone and he experienced real happiness. By 1930, Einar matured in his decision to change sex. To do this, he went to Germany, where a certain doctor promised to perform such an operation for the first time in the world.

Reborn (or reborn?)

Gerda Wegener accompanied her husband everywhere, she was always with him, because, in fact, it was necessary to do not one, but several operations at once. As a result of all this, Lily (we will henceforth call the former spouse of our heroine by a female name) claimed that she felt reborn. She immediately rejuvenated, her skin became softer. She no longer wanted to paint. She wanted nothing more to connect her with Einar, of course, except for Gerda. Together they returned to Copenhagen, where they began life anew. Lily now and then caught the admiring gaze of men and experienced incredible delight. And Gerda at that time continued her artistic activity, organized exhibitions and sales of her paintings, and with the proceeds she continued to “spoil” her friend with new operations. But then the moment came when her exhibitions ceased to interest the viewer, and then the couple completely abandoned creativity.

Parting

A year after Einar finally became Lili, he and Gerda officially divorced, and each went his own way. The artist married an Italian army officer who served in Morocco, and went to him, and Lily againfell in love with an artist, but this time with a man. However, she dreamed of offspring, she wanted to know the joy of motherhood at all costs. To do this, she decided on the most difficult operation to transplant the uterus. However, this caused her death: the body did not want to accept a foreign organ, and it was rejected.

Further fate of Gerda

Having learned about the tragedy that happened to her beloved Lily, Gerda experienced the deepest stress. Soon she divorced her new husband, for whom she had no feelings. In addition, this officer turned out to be a big waster and gambler and lowered all her property to the wind. Returning to Copenhagen, she settled in the house where she once lived with her Einar-Lili. Friends say that she was never able to recover after the death of her beloved “husband”, she shunned everyone and lived a real recluse until the end of her days. In addition, her paintings have ceased to enjoy their former success and have lost their relevance. The woman began to earn her daily bread by drawing the most ordinary Christmas cards, and their buyers could not even imagine that the author of these cards was the artist Gerda Wegener, who was once famous not only in Denmark, but also in Paris itself. Every year it became more and more difficult for her to earn money. She soon became addicted to alcohol and died, outliving her beloved Lily by a full ten years. She was only 56. This is how these two personalities ended their earthly journey tragically, who were able to perpetuate themselves in history as the most daring and eccentriccouple.