#lili elbe

[queerasfact]

Happy birthday Lili Elbe!

Born on December 28, 1882, Lili was a successful artist, specialising in landscape paintings. In the 1930s, she became one of the first trans women to undergo a vaginoplasty, and also legally transitioned in the eyes of the Danish government, changing her name and sex on her birth certificate.

[Image: Black-and-white photo of Lili in a dress and pearls, posing with a fan - 1926]

[random-brushstrokes]

Lili Elbe - Interior of a Boudoir (1916)

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Lili Elbe paintings by wife, Gerda Wegener

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Gerda Wegener (Danish, 1885–1940) A Johan Sebastian Bach humblement signed, dated and titled 'GERDA. WEGENER/ PARIS 1936/ A Johan Sebastian Bach/ humblement' (lower right) oil on canvas 39 3/8 x 31 5/8 in.

She met fellow artist Lili Elbe – then known as Einar Wegener – at art school. They married in 1904, when Gerda was 18 and Lili was 22. They travelled through Italy and France, eventually settling in Paris in 1912. The couple immersed themselves in the Bohemian lifestyle of the time, befriending many artists, dancers and other figures from the artistic world, often attending carnivals and other public festivals.

During this time Elbe began to wear female clothing, and adopted her female name and persona, becoming Gerda Wegener's favorite model, in paintings of beautiful women with haunting almond-shaped eyes dressed in chic fashions. In 1913, the art world was shocked when they learned that the model who had inspired her depictions of petite femmes fatales was in fact her husband.

[poppyflo2]

Gerda Wegener, 1904, via x

[cinemistery]

Lili Elbe | The Danish Girl (2015)

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

The Oscar goes to.....

Best wishes to all this year's nominees!! We also remember our Eddie when he won the Oscar for his role of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything movie.

[psikonauti]

Lili Elbe (Danish,1882-1931)

Scene at Versailles, 1919

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Lili Elbe.

[federer7]

Lili Elbe. c. 1928

Gerda Wegener (Watercolour)

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Gerda Wegener - Lili with a Feather Fan (1920)

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I sommervarmen (Lili) "In the Summer Heat (Lili)" by Gerda Gottlieb Wegener, 1924

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[uwmspeccoll]

International Trans Day of Visibility

Today we are spotlighting a few of the books from our LGBTQ+ Collection that highlight trans lives and issues. Check out the photo captions to find out what books the images came from. 

International Transgender Day of Visibility was created in 2009 by therapist and transgender activist Rachel Crandall Crocker, partially as counterweight to Trans Day of Remembrance, a day of memoriam for all those lost to transgender violence. Crocker wanted "a day that we can just celebrate being ourselves.” More recently, Crocker spoke about the double-edge sword of visibility for trans folks, and called on allies of trans people to make themselves more visible. So for all the cis people reading this, think hard about how you are going to show up for the trans community today, and every day. 

-Olivia Hickner, Special Collections Graduate Intern

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