Gerda Wegener’s Erotic Watercolors: Delicate Sensuality Meets Lesbian Lasciviousness
Danish painter and illustrator Gerda Wegener was born on the 15th March 1886 and since her birthday is coming up I thought it a perfect time to write about her erotic illustrations and paintings from the 1910s and early 1920s. The woman who is now remembered for her sensual and erotic art was born in a strict, conservative family. Moreover, her father was a vicar! Still, as it often goes, Wegener’s explorations of eroticism, sexuality and even gender, were perhaps a reaction to the stifling religious atmosphere in which she grew up in. Wegener studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where she met Einar Wegener, a man who would quickly become her husband. Einar Wegener, better known under the name Lili Elbe, is today remembered as a transwoman and as being one of the first people to undergo a sex reassignment surgery in the early 1930s.
Fig.1 Les Délassements d’Éros, 1925
Fig.2 Les Délassements d’Éros, 1925
Fig.3 Les Délassements d’Éros, 1925
The Danish Girl
Lili’s first experimentations with gender started when he would dress up in dresses and high heels and pose for Gerda, in case her regular model didn’t show up. I don’t want Lili’s fascinating life story to overshadow Gerda’s art, but needless to stay that they both started feeling limited in Denmark and in 1912 the couple moved to Paris where they would both have more freedom; artistically and sexually. Their life is captured in the film ‘The Danish Girl’ (2015), based on the book of the same name, with the Swedish actress Alicia Vikander in the role of Gerda. Many of Gerda Wegener's erotic watercolors presented here were originally painted in 1917 and titled 'Les Délassements d’Éros' and were then republished in 1925 as visual companions for the poetry book 'Douze Sonnets lascifs' by Alexandre de Verineau which was a pseudonym of Louis Perceau. Wegener’s collection 'Les Délassements d’Éros' is a true testament to lesbian erotic art. These days her art is being rediscovered and is seen as playful and fun, but in her time it was an illicit pleasure to be enjoying such artworks.
Fig.4 Les Délassements d’Éros, 1925
Fig.5 Les Délassements d’Éros, 1925
Fig.6 Les Délassements d’Éros, 1925
Feminine Touch
The art of the 1910s is overflowing with erotic illustrations and paintings, but what makes Wegener’s illustrations so unique is their feminine touch; the sense of elegance, tenderness, the colour palette, and even touches of whimsicality and this sets them apart from the more gritty and explicit eroticism that was emerging in the art of the time.
Fig.7 Les Délassements d’Éros, 1925
Read the complete article in Premium and learn more about Wegener's fascination with the Leda and the Swan mythology, the erotic aesthetics in her watercolors and her portrayal of her first husband and transgender woman Lili Elbe.
Click HERE for our earlier article on Gerda Wegener
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