Gerda Wegener coasters

Description

Billy found these coasters by Danish illustrator Gerda Wegener while browsing the museum shop of Millesgården Museum. Gerda Wegener rings a bell? Yes, it may well. Either you are interested in Art Nouveau and Art Deco artists or you’ve seen The Danish Girl, a film telling the story of the artist and transwoman Lili Elbe, who was married to Gerda Wegener.

In order to expand her sphere of activity and to be able to live out her lesbian orientation more freely, Gerda moved to Paris in 1912 together with Lili Elbe, where she worked as a painter and illustrator for magazines such as Vogue, La Vie Parisienne, Fantasio, Le Rire, La Baïonnette and many others. Gerda Wegener illustrated many luxury editions of erotic literature. And the watercolor pictures on the coasters were all used to illustrate the 12 poems in “Les Délassements de Eros” ( Eros’s delight), which was published by Erotopolis (Paris) in 1925 and describes erotic relationships among women with considerable wit and elegance.