569

Attributed to Gerda Wegener (Danish, 1885-1940), "Lili Med Fjerkost (Lili with a Duster Fan),"

oil on canvas, signed lower left, titled on "Galerie Mathias Fels, Paris" label with gallery stamps en verso, unframed,
H.- 23 5/8 in., W.- 15 3/4 in.

  • Provenance: Note: Gerda Wegener, a Danish woman artist, fashion designer and illustrator in the early 20th century, married fellow art student, Einar Wegener, who later became transgender. After moving to Paris, the couple was greatly influenced by art deco and the "garconne" fashion that featured androgynous women with short "boyish" haircuts. Einar began openly dressing as a woman and adopted the name Lili Elbe. Gerda embraced her transgender marriage and Lili became her favorite model. Gerda depicted her numerous times in paintings, fashion illustrations, advertisements and lesbian erotica. It was the art deco rage of the roaring 1920s, and Gerda's work was in great demand; it liberated women from traditional gendered roles and showcased femininity in an urban setting as a commodity of modernity. Lill, on the other hand, ceased painting landscapes (a male dominated genre of art at the time) as she increasingly identified as a woman and as a model for Gerda. In 1931 Lili regrettably died from complications from her gender reassignment surgeries. Gerda's marriage was annulled by the King of Denmark; she remarried an Italian designer, and after the rise of fascism and the "degenerate art" of the Nazi regime, her work fell out of vogue and into obscurity. She died in poverty, painting postcards and reproducing her work for a pittance on which to live.

    Like Marcel Duchamp, an "original" was an elusive concept to Gerda. Her work was liminal; it was non-binary in representation, occupying the in-between of high and low art through multiples and multi-media. Drawings and famous works were routinely reproduced by the artist as postcards, or for fashion magazines, but not as prints proper, rather pochoirs- hand-painted works from layered stencils. The work offered here is one such example of Gerda's multiplicity, modeled by Lili, in drag, with a duster fan.

    This lot is the doppelganger of the eponymous work "Lili with a [Duster] Fan" prominently featured in the artist's retrospective at the Arken Museum in Isoj, Denmark (2016) and at the Valencia d'Art Modern (2020-2021). Remarkably this famed oeuvre also comes from auction house obscurity. With no notable provenance or published exhibition history, it failed to sell at auction three times in Denmark from 2002-2004, and now it is a masterpiece! Behold "Venus and Amor"- two more oil paintings sold at auction by Wegener, also nearly identical in composition but not in size, both original and thus neither a copy in its own right: which preceded which is not known. "Venus and Amor"- the larger (31.25 x 45.75 inches) sold at Sotheby's, London, with no provenance, on Nov. 21. 2021 for $43,843; "Venus and Amor"- the smaller (25.5 x 34.5 inches) sold at Capsule Gallery Auctions, New York, with nominal provenance, for $7,500 on Jan. 27, 2022. Swann Galleries similarly offered two works of the same mixed media watercolor composition, titled the same: "Two Women in a Window", c. 1920, but of different sizes on June 20, 2019 and March 23, 2023 for $13,000 and $20,000, respectively. Several drawings and pochoir copies of the "Rape of Europa", and numerous works with the provenance (stamps and labels) of Galerie Mathias Fels, Paris, c. 1960s abound at market-all catalogued as originals, all discovered therein from the oblivion of history (and its erasure of transgenders from its annals). This striking work, offered here, deserves the same consideration of a discerning and avant-garde buyer.
  • Condition: In overall very good condition. Under UV light there is an inpainted patch (1 1/2 in.x 1/2 in) to the right center of the figure's back and three small lines have been inpainted (heightened) in the bottom of the skirt to the right of the signature. Signature does not float or exhibit any anomalies under UV light. Painting has not been relined and retains its original tacking edges.
    ________________________________________________________________________________
    ALL PROPERTY IS SOLD "AS IS." NO STATEMENT REGARDING CONDITION OF ANY ITEM, WHETHER IT IS MADE ORALLY AT THE AUCTION OR ANY OTHER TIME, OR IN WRITING IN THE CATALOGUE OR ELSEWHERE, SHALL BE DEEMED TO BE A WARRANTY, REPRESENTATION, OR ASSUMPTION OF LIABILITY.


    Condition is not stated in the description of the item. The absence of a condition report does not mean that the item is free of damage or condition issues. Some items do show signs of age or wear. CCAG strongly suggests that you do not bid without requesting a condition report. Requests for condition reports will not be honored after 5 p.m. CST on the Tuesday prior to the auction.

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September 20, 2025 10:00 AM CDT
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Crescent City Auction Gallery

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $49 $5
$50 $99 $10
$100 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $2,999 $100
$3,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,000
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