Women's History Month: Gerda Wegener

Journal des dames et des modes, 1914, Pl. 183: Costumes Parisiens. Petite robe de taffetas pour l'apres-midi, Illustration (plate 183) by Gerda Wegener (1885-1940)

Artist Gerda Wegener is best known for her fashion illustrations in such publications as Journal des dames at des modes, found in the Libraries' special collecations, as well as Vogue and La Vie Parisienne.

Her first husband, artist Einar Wegener, was her frequent and favorite (female) model, an alter-ego that they called "Lili". As Gerda became more and more successful in her artistic career, Einar did more modeling for her than his own artwork. He eventually, with his wife's support, had the first known sexual reassignment surgery to become a woman, Lili Elbe. Once the surgery was completed, the Danish government declared the Wegener's marriage null and void, as the government refused to recognize a marital union of two women.

The Wegeners' lives have been fictionalized in the novel The Danish Girl, by David Ebershoff, which is also in development as a feature film.

—Elizabeth Periale

Related links:

Gerda Wegener: La vie parisienne

Early 20th-Century Danish Women Artists in Light of De Beauvoir's "The Second Sex"

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