Aging Bodies, Mature Careers: Dynamism, Resistance and Autonomy in the Art and Praxis of Danish Women
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fall 2019 Volume 26, No. 2 NEWSLETTER Aging Bodies, Mature Careers: Dynamism, Resistance and Autonomy in the Art and Praxis of Danish Women By Alice M. Rudy Price of the Breakthrough Generation anish women artists who debuted in the 1880s pioneered who had in their very choice of career challenged social norms. My project, largely unprecedented professional paths. Contemporaries with encouragement from the Skovgaard Museum in Viborg, Denmark, Anna Brøndum Ancher (1859–1935), Agnes Rambusch Slott- analyzes the themes, styles, and practices of these women’s careers after age DMøller (1862–1937), Susette Skovgaard Holten (1862–1937) forty as distinct from their initial breakthrough pieces. Holten, in partic- and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen (1863–1947) each pursued careers after they ular, can be seen at the nexus of early organizing efforts of women artists. married and had children; contributed significantly to household income Likewise, Ancher, Slott-Møller, and Carl-Nielsen necessarily strategized, through sales and commissions; gained critical recognition; and inter- networked, and marketed their modernism, renegotiating their tactics for sected with dialogues about modernism during the first decades of the financial and critical success throughout their lifetime under changing twentieth century. Although several authors (Lise Svanholm and Teresa personal, professional and cultural conditions. Nielsen, for example) and exhibitions (Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colo- Carl Nielsen, Slott-Møller, and Holten traveled outside of Denmark ny, 2013; Women Artists in Paris, 1850-1900, 2017), present the challenges these throughout their lifetimes, often alone. As peripatetic women, their artists faced as young women as they began to establish their practice, little experiences contrasted with the conventions of their class that a woman’s substantive attention differentiates their experience as mature individuals sphere was largely bound by the walls of her home. They traversed freely, ignoring the boundaries that privileged public spaces as male. Ancher’s interiors, for example, emphasize liminal features between the indoors IN THIS ISSUE: and outdoors, especially windows and doors. In the 1900s, Ancher makes p. 1 / Aging Bodies, Mature Careers: Dynamism, Resistance and Autonomy in more paintings based on studies done en plein-air. The moors that in the the Art and Praxis of Danish Women of the Breakthrough Generation by 1880s were the domain of the male Skagen colonists, now became her sub- Alice M. Rudy Price ject, but altered to remove figures or narratives, depicting her hometown p. 4 / Current Issue of Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide of Skagen with depopulated streets. The woman/painter/viewer is the only p. 5 / Greetings from the President human presence. Voyages similarly captivated Slott-Møller; she described p. 5 / Note from the Editor giving Jomfru Blidelil [The Virgin Blidelil] (1899), “mighty Egret wings” that p. 6 / Symposia, To Apply & To Attend lifted her over the violet sea; thus, the cold waters and coral as the site of p. 9 / Grants, Fellowships, Prizes, & Awards travel dominate the depictions. The painter traveled widely – not only p. 16 / US Exhibitions solo vacations to Skagen, but also professional trips to France, Greece, p. 19 / International Exhibitions Italy, and England both with and without her family. Likewise, Holten’s p. 22 / New Books p. 24 / Membership Form oeuvre documents a lifetime of travel. She was intrepid, as can be seen in p. 25 / AHNCA Officers and Donors a youthful visit alone to Egypt to meet some friends (who never showed). While she visited Norway with some frequency, the fifteen landscapes that FALL 2019 / AHNCA Newsletter 1 cover story more, Holten’s image of a white-haired woman painting a canvas depicting a younger woman, painted at age 70, demonstrates her continued profes- sional complexity and accomplishment, but is also a self-reflection of an artists’ experience of aging and its depiction during the breakthrough of modernism. Depictions of women as active participants in agricultural work and portraits of her aging mother, such as Kunstnerens mor Ane Hedvig Brøndum i den røde stue [Portrait of the Artist’s Mother in the Red Room] (fig. 2), constitute significant and dynamic themes in Ancher’s work, which direct- ly challenge depictions of older women by her peers. Carl-Nielsen increas- ingly secured large-scale important public commissions or monuments into her seventies, depicting cultural icons of Denmark: the monarchy, a Skagen fisherman, a composer and a mermaid. These artists demonstrated a prioritization of collaboration and interconnection that differs from what is evident in the work of their male colleagues. For instance, Ancher, Holten, and Slott-Møller honour nee- dlework as a tradition of art making by women. Holten and Slott-Møller Figure 1 Agnes Slott-Møller, Den døende Fæstemand [The Dying Betrothed], oil collaborated with artisans to make tapestries, Holten regularly contribut- on canvas, 32 5/8 x 53 ½ in., 1906. Private collection. ed to women’s retail artisanal enterprises as an embroidery pattern maker. Needlework is a theme throughout Anch- er’s work, and she visualizes older women as artists, but also as transmitters of this important craft’s legacy. Slott-Møller’s images of looms and weaving reference traditional handiwork, but also, like Ancher and Holten, acknowledge female relationships through visual references. Physical proximity is also evident. Work- ing in the same historically significant location of Ribe in southern Denmark, in the bodies of depicted women, Slott- Møller’s Jomfru Blidelil [The Virgin Blidelil], Carl-Nielsen’s flying angel figurine for the bronze doors of Ribe Cathedral, and both of their images of Queen Dagmar, acknowledge or quote the visualizations by the other in execution. The four women are of a generation that redefined feminism and the role of the women’s movement. The 1880s saw its formal organization, an increase in educa- Figure 2 Anna Ancher, Kunstnerens mor Ane Hedvig Brøndum i den blå stue [Portrait of the Artist’s Mother in the Blue Room], oil on canvas, 15 ¼ x 22 4/8 in, 1909. Statens Museum for Kunst, https://www.smk.dk/ she exhibited at Den Frie in 1916 document for the public her observations of the Norwegian fields, glaciers and fjords along the coast all the way up to the Arctic circle. As mature women, professional practice, medium choices and subject matter were equally gendered and linked to age. These four artists exhib- ited with or worked alongside male contemporaries, many of whom repre- sented two extremes of women’s life cycles: either desirable young females or ancient witches, widows and hags. Art by these women, in contrast, hinges on bodies that defy convention: extraordinary travel itineraries inform the landscapes of Holten and the sculptures of Carl-Nielsen. At Figure 3 Susette C. Holten født Skovgaard (design), Emma Fischer (weaver), age 50, Holten exceeded “feminine” scale in her ceramic objects for Bing- Weaving for 1895 Women’s Exhibition hung as a backdrop for Holten’s Grøndahl. Slott-Møller at age 43 chose to depict a dying young man in Den displayed interior. Dandelion motif of the exhibition logo, 1895, Skovgaard døende Fæstemand [The Dying Betrothed] (1906) [fig. 1], reversing in this work Museum. Image provided courtesy of Skovgaard Museum; it belongs to the and others Symbolism’s trope of sick or incapacitated women. Further- Design Museum in Copenhagen. 2 FALL 2019 / AHNCA Newsletter cover story tion, and professional opportunities for women. In Denmark, Figure 4 Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, Havfrue [Mermaid], bronze, women secured the vote in 1915, when the artists ranged in 30 × 17 × 33 in, 1922. Statens Museum for Kunst, age from 52 to 56. At the turn of the century, the leading https://www.smk.dk/ voices for women’s issues in Scandinavia included Georg Brandes, a key figure in Denmark’s Modern Breakthrough in the arts who also translated John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women (1870), and Ellen Key, the Swedish feminist who advocated for certain rights, but disparaged mothers Anne-Marie’s admiration (like these women) from pursuing professional careers. for Isadora Duncan and These artists demonstrate a new trajectory in feminist the sculptor’s daily thought and organization catalysed through par- exercise regimen pop- ticipation in gathering examples to display at the ularized by J. P. Müller 1893 Chicago Women’s Building. That success in 1904. The artist also inspired a subsequent Women’s Exhibition entered sculptures in art in Copenhagen (1895), an unsuccessful and sport competitions, building campaign, and finally in the including the 300-meters start for establishment of the Women’s Art the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Her Society in 1916, an organization that female subjects, including Queen continues to promote education, Dagmar and Queen Margarete, the exhibition and collaboration. Mermaid (fig. 4) and the angel door Holten designed the brand for handles on Ribe Cathedral, display flu- the 1895 exhibition, including id, muscular physical power. Bringing printed matter, sets for the the study of these artists all the way exhibition, tapestries and to the 1930s also prevents over-simpli- the porcelain plate with fication and glossing over some of their the logo and trademark controversial positions. By the end of their dandelions (fig. 3). Her careers, one must grapple with the extreme green furniture set, purchased by nationalism and authoritarian vitalism associat- Ancher, featured prominently in print and photo news ed with Carl-Nielsen and Slott-Møller. coverage. Holten, Ancher, and Carl-Nielsen exhibited in 1895 and the latter The works of art are being connected in an interdisciplinary were among the founders of the Women’s Art Society in 1916. Slott-Møller’s exhibition concept and book proposal. Our plan is that the exhibition be participation in women’s movements was more political and extremely na- realized in 2023. It must include works from many different media, exe- tionalist as exemplified by The Ward of the Fatherland (1919) and her activities cuted for a variety of purposes, over a considerable range of time.