A One-of-a-Kind Muse
Art History
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| Gerda Wegener - Portrait of Lili Elbe with a green feather fan, 1920. |
Although transgender people still face a multitude of difficulties in various environments across the globe, a significant increment in their visibility happened in the recent few years mostly through popular culture. Despite the fact trans identity has a very long history dating to various concepts of the third gender found in the ancient civilizations, it was found degenerative, offensive, and therefore marginalized and sanctioned for centuries.
Now, when it comes to visual art, the representation of the same was rather obscure, until the beginning of the 20th century when modern artists started exploring their identities. Although the European societies were conservative, scrupulous and embedded in patriarchy, during that time a significant number of them who identified as lesbian, gay or trans found different tactics most often affiliated with costuming (dragging) to present their queerness without being too much for the public moral.
Gerda met Lili Elbe, formerly known as Einar Wegener, at art school. The two married in 1904, traveled throughout Italy and France and settled in Paris in 1912. They quickly became part of the thriving bohemian art scene, connecting with various artists, dancers and practitioners, indulging costume parties and other public festivals.
During her Parisian years, Elbe started flirting with drag by adopting a female name and persona, after being asked by Wegener to pose for her instead of a friend, model, and actress Anna Larssen, who was late. Elbe found it appealing and she quickly became Wegener's favorite model, an inspiration that the artist expressed in numerous paintings of beautiful women dressed in chic attires. Although she presented Lili Elbe as the cousin of Einar Wegener, in 1913 after acknowledging that the person who inspired her femme fatale paintings was her husband, the art world was shocked.
Sound familiar: Lili Elbe was the subject of the 2015 film “The Danish Girl”.
