#beaugency

Lili Elbe (Dec. 28, 1882 - 1931) was a Danish artist. She was a transgender woman, who lived in France with her wife Gerda Wegener from 1912 onwards. Lili was born Einar Wegener, trained at the Royal Danish Academy, and had a modest career as a landscape painter.

By and by her own art took a backseat to Gerda’s career as a successful illustrator and commercial artist. Lili was Gerda’s favorite model.

In 1930 and ‘31 Lili had sex change surgery in Germany but she died from complications stemming from the experimental procedures used. Her life is the basis for the movie, The Danish Girl, of course.

On the banks of the Loire (Beaugency artists colony)   -   Gerda Wegener ,1926.

Danish, 1886-1949

Gerda Wegener, detail, On the banks of the Loire (Beaugency artists colony), Paris, 1926.

“In Gerda Wegener’s On the banks of the Loire, 1926, we see innumerable Bohemians from the artists’ colony on a summer’s day in swimsuits far from the city of Paris…

For female artists just a generation before Gerda Wegener’s it was not possible at all for a woman to move around freely in the spaces of the city without being accosted and misunderstood. The definition of the Impressionists as ‘the painters of modern life’, for example, is therefor problematic in the case of an artist like Berthe Morisot. Gerda Wegener on the other hand romped freely through city life, whether this was well received or not. At any rate it became normal – not least during the First World War, when the french men were at the front, and the women had to take over many of the men’s former tasks. The women grew stronger… After World War One, Europe was traumatised, and the survivors lived wilder lives than before – quite simply so they could feel alive. The 1920 were thus typified by festivities and amusements and by gender roles in transition. Everything was permitted, much more so than before.”