Kvindelige Kunstneres Samfund (KKS) or Society of Female Artists is a Danish organization which strives to enable women to work as professional artists on equal terms with their male counterparts. KKS was founded by the painters Marie Henriques and Helvig Kinch on 7 February 1916. With the support of the painter Anna Ancher and the sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, 75 artists attended the inaugural meeting. Today the organization has over 250 members. [1] [2]
Around 1915, Denmark's female artists began to realize that they needed to club together if they were to enjoy the same opportunities as their male counterparts. Elisabeth Bernekow of Föreningen Svenska Konstnärinnor (Society of Swedish Female Artists) which had been founded in 1910 provided Helvig Kinch with background information and advice to assist her in her efforts to establish a similar organization in Denmark. Together with the painter Marie Henriques and the sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, she drafted an invitation which established the basic objectives of the planned organization. These were aimed above all at facilitating opportunities for women to exhibit their work. The invitation explained that this would be achieved by liaising with those responsible for exhibitions in Denmark and abroad, ensuring that women were included in the corresponding committees and juries, and encouraging both men and women to support the interests of female artists. [3]
Endorsed by 25 female artists, the invitation was sent out to women involved in art and craftmanship who had exhibited publicly on at least three occasions. As a result, at the organization's inaugural meeting on 7 February 1916, 75 women signed up as members of the KKS. [3]
Many of the earlier members experienced considerable difficulties. Anna Ancher and several of her colleagues were wary of being considered "women artists" if they became too involved in achieving equal rights. They were concerned first and foremost by their artwork, keen to be judged side-by-side with male artists. [2] [4]
With the publication in 2014 of 100 års øjeblikke : Kvindelige Kunstneres Samfund, presenting key events over the past 100 years, [5] the organization was able to highlight several women artists who had been forgotten while highlighting the difficulties women artists faced in striving to enhance their status. Today the organization continues to ensure that the works of women artists, including those working in craftmanship, are treated on an equal basis with those of men. Thanks to the 2014 anthology, in collaboration with professionals and other organizations, KKS hopes to contribute to the history of art by revealing significant female artists who have been forgotten. [6]
As listed in 100 års øjeblikke : Kvindelige Kunstneres Samfund [5] and at KKS: [7]
Anna Ancher was a Danish artist associated with the Skagen Painters, an artist colony on the northern point of Jutland, Denmark. She is considered to be one of Denmark's greatest visual artists.
Marie Triepcke Krøyer Alfvén, commonly known as Marie Krøyer, was a Danish painter. She is remembered principally as the wife of Peder Severin Krøyer, one of the most successful members of the artists' colony known as the Skagen Painters, which flourished at the end of the 19th century in the far north of Jutland. Marie was also a part of the small group of Danish painters in her own right. From an early age, Marie aspired to become an artist, and after training privately in Copenhagen she went to Paris to continue her studies.There she was educated in the principals of Naturalism, and was influenced greatly by the French Impressionists. It was there, in early 1889, that she met Krøyer, who immediately fell madly in love with her. Although he was sixteen years her senior, the couple married that summer and in 1891 settled in Skagen. Clearly inspired by Marie's beauty, Krøyer had ample opportunity to paint her portraits both indoors and outdoors, especially on the beach. Married life became more difficult as Krøyer experienced periods of mental illness from 1900, and Marie eventually began an affair with the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén who had also been taken by her beauty. The couple had a child, Marie divorced Krøyer and moved to Sweden with Alfvén. They married in 1912, but marital problems once again resulted in divorce. Marie was reluctant to paint after meeting Krøyer, whom she looked up to as a far more competent artist, and she is remembered more as the subject of some of his best-known paintings than for her own work, although several of her pictures have recently attracted renewed interest. She is now also recognized for her significant contributions to design and architecture.
KKS could refer to:
The Skagen Painters were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the village of Skagen, the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century. Skagen was a summer destination whose scenic nature, local milieu and social community attracted northern artists to paint en plein air, emulating the French Impressionists—though members of the Skagen colony were also influenced by Realist movements such as the Barbizon school. They broke away from the rather rigid traditions of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, espousing the latest trends that they had learned in Paris. Among the group were Anna and Michael Ancher, Peder Severin Krøyer, Holger Drachmann, Karl Madsen, Laurits Tuxen, Marie Krøyer, Carl Locher, Viggo Johansen and Thorvald Niss from Denmark, Oscar Björck and Johan Krouthén from Sweden, and Christian Krohg and Eilif Peterssen from Norway. The group gathered together regularly at the Brøndums Inn.
Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen was a Danish sculptor. Her preferred themes were domestic animals and people, with an intense, naturalistic portrayal of movements and sentiments. She also depicted themes from Nordic mythology. She was "one of the first women to be taken seriously as a sculptor," a trend-setter in Danish art for most of her life. She was married to the Danish composer Carl Nielsen.
Will He Round the Point? is an 1880 oil-on-canvas painting by Michael Ancher, a Danish painter associated with the Skagen Painters. The painting is particularly notable as Ancher sold it to Christian IX of Denmark, bringing Skagen and its artistic community to wider attention.
Sunlight in the Blue Room is an 1891 painting by Anna Ancher, an innovative Danish painter who was a central figure with the Skagen Painters. With its many shades of blue and the sunlight pouring through the window, the painting is one of her most prominent works.
Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen Beach is a 1906 painting by P.S. Krøyer. The large work, which took several years to complete, shows many of the artists in the group known as the Skagen Painters as well as influential members of Skagen's local community.
Bertha Olga Vilhelmine Herlich Dorph née Green was a Danish painter.
Anna Sophie Lorenze Petersen was a Danish painter. Although she showed some promise as an artist, specifically in genre painting, she struggled to find a place in the male-dominated Danish art world of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her work fell out of fashion and she was largely forgotten until the end of the 20th century when the Hirschsprung Collection and Statens Museum for Kunst acquired some of her more important works.
Astrid Valborg Holm (1876–1937) was a Danish painter and textile artist. She was one of only two Danes who studied under Henri Matisse in Paris.
Caroline Emilie Mundt was a Danish painter, known for her portraits of children.
Ingeborg Plockross Irminger (1872–1962) was a Danish artist who is remembered both for her sculptures and for the miniature porcelain statues of animals and human figures she designed while working for Bing & Grøndahl. A bronze cast of her 1903 bust of the writer Herman Bang was installed on Sankt Annæ Plads in Copenhagen in 2012.
Marie Henriques was a Danish painter who created landscapes, figure paintings and portraits, initially in the Realist style but increasingly under the influence of Impressionism. She also painted watercolours of ancient architecture and sculpture. In 1916, she was a founding member of the Society of Women Artists .
Karen Margrete Svensson (1908–1998) was a Danish illustrator who contributed drawings to Danish newspapers and magazines, especially Politiken. Her illustrated books include those by Lise Nørgaard and Johannes Møllehave. Svensson also created posters for Copenhagen's Tivoli and designed decorative plates and spoons for Royal Copenhagen.
Marie Vilhelmine Bang, commonly known as Ville Bang, (1848–1932) was a Danish painter of portraits, landscapes and genre works. In 1888, together with 22 other women, she presented a petition to the parliament, calling for the Art Academy to be expanded to admit women. It led to the establishment of Kunstakademiets Kunstskole for Kvinder where in October 1888 she was one of the first students. Together with Augusta Paulli, she later opened an art school to prepare women for the Academy.
Ida Marie Suhr (1853–1938) was a wealthy Danish philanthropist and estate owner. She is remembered for her associations with the Skagen Painters, in particular Anna and Michael Ancher, whom she met during annual visits to Skagen and invited to stay with her at Petersgaard Manor in southern Zealand. In addition to the houses she built for those working on her estate, she funded an old people's home in nearby Langebæk and a convalescent home in Copenhagen.
Helvig Agnete Kinch née Amsinck (1872–1956) was a Danish artist who specialized in painting animals, especially horses. In the early 20th-century, she participated in archaeological research near Lindos on the island of Rhodes, creating landscapes of the area and illustrating the artefacts discovered there. Together with Marie Henriques, in 1916 she established the Danish Society of Female Artists to encourage women artists to exhibit their works.
