The Royal Danish CollectionAmalienborgElisabeth Jerichau-Baumann

Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann

Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann was a Polish-Danish painter, best known for her famous painting Mother Denmark (1851, The Glyptotek).

She was born in Poland but left the country aged 19. After having spent time in Germany, where she attended the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf, she moved to Rome in 1845. Here she met the Danish sculptor Jens Adolf Jerichau. The married in 1846 and moved to Denmark three years later.

Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann was very prolific and painted many portraits, e.g. Johanne Louise Heiberg (1852, State Museum of Art) and historical genre pieces such as A Wounded Danish Warrior (1865, State Museum of Art). Inspired from travels to North Africa and Turkey she also painted several Orientalist pieces of women and harems.

She did not receive the acknowledgement in Denmark that she longed for but had great succes abroad, with several large exhibitions in various European cities. In her memoirs Memories of my Youth (1874) and Varied Travel Images (1881), Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann tells about her life as a woman and an artist, two conditions that were difficult to combine during her lifetime.

 

 

 

 

Relations

Alexandra and Dagmar, 1856

Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann's painting from 1856 of Christian IX and Queen Louise's two eldest daughters, who later became Queen of England and Empress of Russia respectively.

Prince Frederik, 1852

Prince Frederik (VIII) portrayed in 1852 by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann. This was the year when it was decided that his father, Prince Christian (IX), should inherit the throne after the childless Frederik VII.

Queen Louise, 1881

The full-length portrait of Queen Louise is placed next to the full-lenght portrait of her husband, Christian IX but there is ten years difference between the two paintings.