I’ve been working on my Frida Hansen passion project and preparing for my workshop next week at Vesterheim Folk School. It’s not easy bringing order to all of the images I’ve collected from books, digital museum collections, and my own photos. My plan is to organize folders based on the incomparable list of works compiled by Anniken Thue and published in 1973, Frida Hansen: Europeeren I Norsk Vevkunst (1855-1931). Here’s an example from this catalog, page 55.
Do you see Number 55, Rose Tree and Lilies of the Valley? It is listed as owned by the Norsk Folkemuseum. Great, I thought. I haven’t seen it, but there should be a digital copy available, as most items in that museum are in the Norwegian Digital Museum, digitaltmuseum.no. But I didn’t see it by glancing through the images. I’ll find it later, I thought.
Later, as I was skimming the Norwegian Digital Museum images for another transparency, I stopped at one I hadn’t noticed. There was the rose tree, but someone unfamiliar with Frida Hansen’s work (or trees, apparently) had hung it upside down!
It’s still beautiful, of course, and so interesting to see her use of a bold blue for the leaves. This research is endlessly fun.