Elise Konstantin-Hansen (1858–1946) was a Danish painter and ceramist. She developed her own naturalistic style, often painting sea birds, animals, plants and beach scenes.

Early life and education

Konstantin-Hansen was born in the

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is formally an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the City of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of ...

district of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

on 4 May 1858. She was the daughter of the

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

painter Carl Christian Constantin Hansen and his wife Magdelene Barbara Købke. She changed the spelling of her name to Konstantin-Hansen in 1908. She grew up in an artistic milieu. Several of her eight siblings were artistically talented, especially her sister Kristiane who became an embroiderer. Konstantin-Hansen herself also began embroidering while young, often developing her own designs. Later, after her father died in 1880, she became

Thorvald Bindesbøll Thorvald Bindesbøll (21 July 1846 – 27 August 1908) was a Danish National romantic architect, sculptor and ornamental artist. He designed the Dragon Fountain, Copenhagen (''Dragespringvandet'') and is perhaps best known as the creator of t ...

's principal assistant. In addition to being introduced to painting by her father, she attended

Vilhelm Kyhn Peter Vilhelm Carl Kyhn (March 30, 1819 – May 11, 1903) was a Danish landscape painter who belonged to the generation of national romantic painters immediately after the Danish Golden Age and before the Modern Breakthrough. Even though he outliv ...

's painting school and was instructed by

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and

Laurits Tuxen Laurits Regner Tuxen (9 December 1853 – 21 November 1927) was a Danish painter and sculptor specialising in figure painting. He was also associated with the Skagen Painters. He was the first head of Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler, an art school ...

before studying in

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in 1886.

Artistic style

In the early 1880s, she practised embroidery, adopting the Pompeian approach favoured by

. She went on to work with ceramics at the

Utterslev Utterslev is a neighbourhood in the Bispebjerg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. Utterslev is centered on Utterslev Torv (Utterslev Square) and is most known for the Utterslev Mose marshland which straddles the border with Gladsaxe Municipality to t ...

workshop with Bindesbøll and the Skovgaard brothers where she developed a freer, more personal style. Significantly influenced by

Japanese art Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ''ukiyo-e'' paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime. It ...

, she developed an ornamental approach to the seabirds, animals, plants and beach scenes she frequently painted. Some of her ceramic creations are among her most notable works, especially a plate depicting a starfish, a glazed relief with oyster catchers, and distinctive bowls with vultures. Konstantin-Hansen painted her last major work in 1930, ''Svaneflok i våge'', depicting a group of swans near

Kolding Fjord Kolding Fjord is a 10 km long fjord between Kolding and Little Belt. Fjord has a 7 meters deep ship channel linking it to Kolding port. In 1943 a shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on l ...

Exhibitions

From 1882, Konstantin-Hansen exhibited her paintings at Charlottenborg where in 1885 she won the Neuhausen Prize for her ''Drenge udenfor en Grønthandel'' (Boy Outside a Greengrocer's). In 1893, she started instead to exhibit at

Den Frie Udstilling Den Frie Udstilling ('The Free Exhibition') is a Danish artists' association, founded in 1891 by artists in protest against the admission requirements for the Kunsthal Charlottenborg. Modeled on the Salon des Refusés, it is Denmark's oldest asso ...

where she continued to display her works until 1928. Her works were also exhibited abroad, in Paris (1889), and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

(1910–11). Konstantin-Hansen exhibited her work at the

Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to ...

at the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

in Chicago, Illinois. In 1917, she also exhibited at the Danish Art Trade show (Dansk Kunsthandel) and at the 1920 Women's Retrospective Exhibition (Kvindelige kunstneres retrospektive udstilling). More recently, examples of her work were exhibited in 2013 at Kolding Kunstforening.

Selected paintings

Elise Konstantin-Hansen - Hønsene på morgenudflugt.jpg, ''Hønsene på morgenudflugt'' (1898) Elise Konstantin-Hansen - Ågård c. 1915.jpg, ''Ågård'' (ca. 1915)

Written works

* ''Minder og Oplevelser'' (1929) * ''Små kapitler af et langt liv'' (1935) * ''Samliv med dansk Kunst'' (1937) * ''Erindringsbillede af Constantin Hansen'' (1936)

References

External links

Examples of Konstantin-Hansen's paintings from drostrup.dk

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konstantin-Hansen, Elise 1858 births 1946 deaths Danish women artisans Danish women painters 19th-century Danish ceramists 20th-century Danish ceramists Danish women ceramists People from Frederiksberg Artists from Copenhagen 19th-century Danish painters 20th-century Danish painters 19th-century Danish women artists 20th-century Danish women artists 20th-century Danish artists Danish embroiderers