Elise Konstantin Hansen

Elise Konstantin-Hansen was a self-taught Danish painter and ceramist who developed her own naturalistic style, often painting sea birds, animals, plants and beach scenes. She was born in Frederiksberg in 1858, where her father was a clerk in the Police Court. She lost both parents at the age of nine and was placed in an orphanage, where she received an elementary education. She showed an interest in painting from an early age and was sent to Hamburg to apprentice with a German painter. She later attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, where she won several prizes for her biblical paintings. She traveled to Germany, Italy, France, and Switzerland, where she painted many landscapes and learned from the works of other artists. She returned to Copenhagen in 1896 and married the archaeologist Karl Frederik Kinch in 1903. She accompanied her husband on several expeditions to Rhodes, where she painted and illustrated the archaeological findings. She also founded the Danish Society of Female Artists in 1916, together with Marie Henriques, to improve the opportunities for women artists to exhibit their works. She painted more than 400 paintings, mainly of animals and birds, but also some landscapes and genre scenes. She also created clay sculptures, illustrated children's books and developed templates for embroidery. She died in 1946 at the age of 87.