?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
GERDA WEGENER Two Women in a Window.
Watercolor, chalk and pencil, circa 1920. 375x285 mm; 14 5/8x11 1/4 inches. Signed in watercolor, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Connecticut.
Wegener (1886-1940) handled the current work, the common motif of two women gazing out from a window, between domestic and exterior space, with characteristic sensuality and sinuous line. She repeated this composition in another watercolor and charcoal drawing, also sold at Swann Auction Galleries, June 20, 2019, sale 2514, lot 38. Her spouse and muse, Lili Elbe, served as the model on the left.
Together, Wegener and Elbe explored themes of love, sex, gender and mystery in their life and art. Elbe also had success as a painter, primarily under the name Einar Wegener; she is known for her Impressionistic landscapes, many of which depict scenes around Paris. As the first woman to undergo gender confirmation surgery, Elbe became a significant figure in the LGBTQ community. After her successful transition in 1930, she changed her legal name to Lili Ilse Elvenes and ceased painting. Unfortunately, as the methods were largely untested and the surgery was dangerous, she passed away from complications of her fourth surgery. In 2000, a novel loosely based on her life was published and subsequently adapted into a feature-length film, The Danish Girl, in 2015.
