Controversial Art History: Gerda Wegener's 100-year-old Portrait of Her Partner, the Trans Woman Lili Elbe, at Auction

Almost 100 years ago, Lili Elbe underwent one of the world's first gender reassignment surgeries. She sat as a model for her partner and internationally renowned artist Gerda Wegener for a painting that is once again highly topical considering the ongoing public conversations about gender and sexuality. The painting, which is valued at € 54,000-67,000 (DKK 400,000-500,000), will be auctioned off at Bruun Rasmussen on the International Women's Day on 8 March.

One of the most prominent female artists in Denmark during the 1920s was Gerda Wegener. She was an extremely talented artist, but was also known for her marriage to Lili Elbe, who was one of the first people to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Gerda Wegener has portrayed her partner, the trans woman Lili Elbe without clothes in the painting "I sommervarmen” (In the Heat of Summer) from 1924. Today – almost 100 years later – where gender, sexuality and identity are once again at the forefront of the public agenda, the couple’s story and the offered artwork contains renewed topicality. The painting is valued at DKK 400,000-500,000 and is, very appropriately, set to be sold at Bruun Rasmussen on 8 March, the day that celebrates the many achievements of women in society.

“The painting is so well-made that the viewer is immediately captured by the aesthetic qualities and beautiful details of the image. The gender theme cannot be decoded immediately, and in this way the artist challenges the preconceived notions with which we read a motif. The understanding that the model we are looking at is a woman who was biologically born as a man does not take anything away from the work. It functions both with and without this knowledge – regardless of gender, preferences and orientation – which positions it among the best works by the artist,” says Peter Beck, a specialist in the Department of Modern Art at Bruun Rasmussen.

A Once Controversial Artist and Woman

Gerda Wegener was in many ways a woman ahead of her time. With her refined brush stroke and her elegant portraits of women, she became a recognized artist in the capital of art, Paris, to which she moved. She became part of the city's art scene as a portrait painter and sought-after illustrator for the leading fashion magazines, who were enticed by her piquant and often quite decadent depictions of women with red lips and almond-shaped eyes.

However, it was not only Gerda Wegener's position as a pioneering artist that made her famous. Her personal story has also fascinated the whole world and still fascinates today, most recently with the film "The Danish Girl" from 2016, which depicts her and Lili Elbe's life.

Gerda Wegener's fate, however, does not seem to have been on the cards from the start as she grew up as the daughter of a priest in East Jutland. She quickly chose to pursue her calling as an illustrator and moved to Copenhagen to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 1904 she married her fellow student, the landscape painter Einar Wegener, who later underwent a gender reassignment surgery and is today known as Lili Elbe. The couple left Copenhagen in 1912 and settled in the more liberal metropolis of Paris, where they had the opportunity to unfold their artistic careers and live more freely in a then controversial relationship. Their marriage was annulled in 1930, where one of the reasons was that Lili Elbe was physically and legally accepted as a woman and therefore could not be married to another woman.

Gender, Sexuality and Identity in Art

Gerda Wegener is an empathetic interpreter of human beings, and she especially enjoys highlighting female beauty. In addition to the actresses and artistic personalities of the time, the portrayals of Lili Elbe are absolutely central. This is also the case with “I Sommervarmen” (In the Heat of Summer) from 1924, where Lili Elbe is depicted with her back turned and reclining seductively as an odalisque. The face is seen in profile with heavy, almost drowsy eyelids, red-painted lips and cherry-coloured cheeks. Wearing only a pair of high-heeled silk sandals, the vulnerable nudity is in contrast with the flowery Rococo chair and fan.

Art history is filled with beautiful, female nude models who appear as objects of the male artist's desires and the spectator's scrutinizing gaze. But here the gaze becomes ambiguous. Partly because the artist is a woman – partly because the model is a trans woman. In our day and age where gender, sexuality, identity are issues debated and negotiated like never before, the painting has gained an increased topicality despite the almost 100 years that have passed. The painting was part of ARKEN's large "Gerda Wegener" exhibition from 2015-17, which was a tribute to a strong artist whose works and extraordinary life has struck a chord in our time.

Bruun Rasmussen Focuses on Female Artists

The work by Gerda Wegener is up for auction on the International Women's Day, and Bruun Rasmussen's focus on female artists is neither new nor by chance. In recent years, the auction house has had a targeted focus on presenting a large and varied range of high-quality works by talented female artists who have previously been written out of art history and therefore have not yet achieved the same recognition as their male colleagues.

This is a focus that in time can also be traced in large parts to the rest of the art world, and in combination it has meant a marked increase in the demand for works by female artists on the auction market. Both private collectors and museums from home and abroad want to expand their collections as art and design history is rewritten, which Bruun Rasmussen can also see in the increasing hammer prices at the recent years' auctions.

The painting "I sommervarmen” (In the Heat of Summer) by Gerda Wegener will be sold in the company of other modern works of art on Tuesday 8 March at 4 pm at Bruun Rasmussen, Bredgade 33, Copenhagen. Everyone is welcome.

Find the calendar for previews and auctions HERE.

Read more about Gerda Wegener's work HERE.

Read more about the auction in the catalogue HERE and on Bruun Rasmussen's website HERE.