BERTHA WEGMANN
PAINTING IN MANY LANGUAGES

 
FEBRUARY 9 - MAY 29, 2022
 
THE HIRSCHSPRUNG COLLECTION | COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
 
Bertha Wegmann: ‘A Young Woman. Portrait of the artist Marie Triepcke', 1885. The Hirschsprung Collection
 

And then she was forgotten… This exhibition ​​tells the story of Bertha Wegmann (1847–1926), a talented artist who was supported by wealthy merchants and art collectors in Copenhagen, and who achieved her artistic breakthrough at an early stage. Wegmann successfully participated in the major annual exhibitions in Denmark and internationally, was the only female member of the Academy’s Plenary Assembly and the only woman on the powerful jury for the annual Charlottenborg exhibitions. In her time, she ranked alongside Peder Severin Krøyer as one of the most sought-after portrait painters in Denmark.

The Hirschsprung Collection, which holds the largest collection of Wegmann’s works, presents the first-ever research-based exhibition about the artist with a dazzling array of portraits: her loved ones as well as official portraits of men, women and children. But she was more than a portrait painter, she created many scintillating landscapes, views of cities and the countryside, granting her a rare ability to ‘paint in many languages’.