The Orientalist Sale

The Orientalist Sale

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 30. Shepherd in the Atlas Mountains.

Property from a Danish Private Collection

Gerda Wegener

Shepherd in the Atlas Mountains

Lot Closed

October 26, 02:29 PM GMT

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Danish Private Collection

Gerda Wegener

Danish

1886 - 1940

Shepherd in the Atlas Mountains


signed GERDA. WEGENER. PORTA lower right

watercolour heightened with white on paper

Unframed: 49 by 65cm., 19¼ by 25½in.

Framed: 52 by 67.5cm., 20½ by 26½in.

Sale: Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, 1984, lot 215
Aarhus, The Women's Museum in Denmark, Gerda Wegener, 1993, no. 12
Ishøj, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Gerda Wegener, 2015–16, no. 139
Gerda Wegener was a Danish illustrator and painter, famous for her images of fashionable women in the style of art nouveau and, later, art deco. Her first husband, Einar Wegener, identified as female and became her favourite model under the name Lili Elbe. David Ebershoff's 2000 novel about the couple, The Danish Girl, was an international bestseller. In the 2015 film version, Gerda is portrayed by Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, also starring British actor Eddie Redmayne as Lili Elbe. Following Lili's death, Gerda married Italian officer, aviator, and diplomat Major Fernando Porta, moving with him to Marrakech. Here she continued to paint, including the present work with the Atlas Mountains as its backdrop.