Bertha Wegmann (UK)

Danish artist Bertha Wegmann’s (1847–1926) art and career represent something of a paradox: successful, yet forgotten. She enjoyed great triumphs outside of Denmark, gaining recognition at the Salon in Paris, and she took part in many other major exhibitions at home and abroad to great acclaim.

In her hometown of Copenhagen she portrayed the upper echelons of society, and she was the first woman ever to get a seat on the Academy of Fine Arts’ Plenary Assembly. A prominent member of the Danish art scene, she also spent several years living and working in various cities and sites in Europe.

Yet despite her impressive career, Bertha Wegmann never got a place in the annals of Danish art history, and her works were not bought by the Danish art museums. She shares this fate with many other women artists of her time.

‘Bertha Wegmann’ is the first research-based book about the artist. Containing contributions from several art historians, it unfolds various aspects of Wegmann’s life and work, her period and the networks of which she was part. Lavishly illustrated, this comprehensive volume features a wealth of well-known and newly discovered works, photographs and archive material.