 |
| Emma Meyer Women Decorating Porcelain at De Kgl. Porcelænsfabrik (Royal Copenhagen), 1895 oil on canvas 58 X 80 cm. (22.8 X 31.5 in.) |
Painter Emma Eleonore Meyer is little known in the United States, and it is a shame. In terms of staying power in the cultural consciousness, she unfortunately had several impediments to her being remembered : she worked in a period and style that became much maligned, even in her own lifetime; she was not associated with a 19th century powerhouse country like England, the United States, or France; and she was a woman – a single woman – with no famous male artist spouse or relative to lend her fame through association. And even when one stumbles across her today, in this age of too much information, she is difficult to research, even in her progressive home country of Denmark, where she is considered an important painter.
Emma Meyer was born August 20th, 1859 in Flensburg, a major port city on the Danish-German border. She was the third child of Maria Frederikke Dalberg (1832-1917), and Fritz Meyer (1871-1891), a Member of the Court of Appeals who later became a Supreme Court Justice. At a time when women could not study at the free Danish Art Academy, and when even schools formed by large women's rights groups only taught their students crafting skills like painting porcelain, designing textile patterns, or engraving the work of other artists in copperplate, Meyer had the good fortune to study with some of the most influential artists in her country. Among her teachers were Emilie Mundt and Marie Luplau, a feminist couple who trained in Munich and Paris and who had opened a school in Coppenhagen that catered to female students; Harald Foss, a well-known landscape painter; and Peder Severin Krøyer, one of the best-known and most-celebrated artists in Denmark. Meyer showed her paintings in many prestigious exhibitions throughout Denmark, and won several important awards in her lifetime, including the Louise Ravn-Hansen Scholarship and the Sødringske Encouragement Prize, which allowed her to take several small trips abroad. She never married, probably in deference to the general consensus of the time that a female artist who married would need to forget their careers in order to focus on their domestic responsibilities.* On October 8th, 1921, Meyer passed away, aged 62, and was buried at the Solbjerg Park Cemetery in Frederiksberg, alongside other famous artists including Vilhelm Kyhn, and her teachers, Luplau and Mundt.
Meyer is probably now best known for her painting Women Decorating Porcelain at De Kgl. Porcelænsfabrik, which she showed at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition in 1895. It depicts an interior with female employees painting decorations on unfinished ceramics at the Royal Porcelain Factory in Copenhagen. Likely among the women in the scene is Jenny Meyer (1866-1927), Emma's youngest sister. Jenny, who pursued a more traditional route for female artists of the time, is arguably the more famous of the two sisters, having had her decorations exhibited more extensively, with inclusions at the World Exhibitions held in Chicago in 1893, and in Paris, 1925. Women Decorating Porcelain at De Kgl. Porcelænsfabrik was purchased in 1895 by the Kunstforeningen, one of the smaller museums in Copenhagen, which specialized in new works by young artists. In 2011, the museum deaccessioned the work, selling it at the Brunn Rasmussen Auction House, where it garnered € 25,000, more than twice its high estimate. Presumably, it is now in a private collection.
*The influential teacher Vilhelm Kyhn infamously once told his student Anna Brøndum, upon learning of her decision to wed, "Now that you're getting married, put your art equipment in a wheelbarrow, take it down to the sea, and dump it. You need to think about your duties as a housewife now."¹ Brøndum, who married fellow-artist Michael Ancher became one of the most famous painters of the artist colony at Skagen. Kyhn was among the few 19th century artists in Denmark who trained women, and Anna Ancher is likely his most famous student, though Emilie Mundt and Marie Luplau also trained under his auspices.
¹ Sjoholm, Barbara, "What We Want: The Art of Marie Luplau and Emilie Mundt,"Feminist Studies, Vol. 35, No. 3, The Politics of Embodiment, (Fall 2009), p. 550, as translated from the Danish, Mona Jensen and Birthe Møller Nielsen, "Tidens malende damer" in Kvindfolk: en danmarkshistorie fra 1600 til 1980, ed. Anne Margrete Berg, Lis Frost, and Anne Olsen, (Copenhagen: Gydendal, 1987), vol. 1, pg. 298.
Emma Meyer was born August 20th, 1859 in Flensburg, a major port city on the Danish-German border. She was the third child of Maria Frederikke Dalberg (1832-1917), and Fritz Meyer (1871-1891), a Member of the Court of Appeals who later became a Supreme Court Justice. At a time when women could not study at the free Danish Art Academy, and when even schools formed by large women's rights groups only taught their students crafting skills like painting porcelain, designing textile patterns, or engraving the work of other artists in copperplate, Meyer had the good fortune to study with some of the most influential artists in her country. Among her teachers were Emilie Mundt and Marie Luplau, a feminist couple who trained in Munich and Paris and who had opened a school in Coppenhagen that catered to female students; Harald Foss, a well-known landscape painter; and Peder Severin Krøyer, one of the best-known and most-celebrated artists in Denmark. Meyer showed her paintings in many prestigious exhibitions throughout Denmark, and won several important awards in her lifetime, including the Louise Ravn-Hansen Scholarship and the Sødringske Encouragement Prize, which allowed her to take several small trips abroad. She never married, probably in deference to the general consensus of the time that a female artist who married would need to forget their careers in order to focus on their domestic responsibilities.* On October 8th, 1921, Meyer passed away, aged 62, and was buried at the Solbjerg Park Cemetery in Frederiksberg, alongside other famous artists including Vilhelm Kyhn, and her teachers, Luplau and Mundt.
Meyer is probably now best known for her painting Women Decorating Porcelain at De Kgl. Porcelænsfabrik, which she showed at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition in 1895. It depicts an interior with female employees painting decorations on unfinished ceramics at the Royal Porcelain Factory in Copenhagen. Likely among the women in the scene is Jenny Meyer (1866-1927), Emma's youngest sister. Jenny, who pursued a more traditional route for female artists of the time, is arguably the more famous of the two sisters, having had her decorations exhibited more extensively, with inclusions at the World Exhibitions held in Chicago in 1893, and in Paris, 1925. Women Decorating Porcelain at De Kgl. Porcelænsfabrik was purchased in 1895 by the Kunstforeningen, one of the smaller museums in Copenhagen, which specialized in new works by young artists. In 2011, the museum deaccessioned the work, selling it at the Brunn Rasmussen Auction House, where it garnered € 25,000, more than twice its high estimate. Presumably, it is now in a private collection.
*The influential teacher Vilhelm Kyhn infamously once told his student Anna Brøndum, upon learning of her decision to wed, "Now that you're getting married, put your art equipment in a wheelbarrow, take it down to the sea, and dump it. You need to think about your duties as a housewife now."¹ Brøndum, who married fellow-artist Michael Ancher became one of the most famous painters of the artist colony at Skagen. Kyhn was among the few 19th century artists in Denmark who trained women, and Anna Ancher is likely his most famous student, though Emilie Mundt and Marie Luplau also trained under his auspices.
¹ Sjoholm, Barbara, "What We Want: The Art of Marie Luplau and Emilie Mundt,"Feminist Studies, Vol. 35, No. 3, The Politics of Embodiment, (Fall 2009), p. 550, as translated from the Danish, Mona Jensen and Birthe Møller Nielsen, "Tidens malende damer" in Kvindfolk: en danmarkshistorie fra 1600 til 1980, ed. Anne Margrete Berg, Lis Frost, and Anne Olsen, (Copenhagen: Gydendal, 1987), vol. 1, pg. 298.