zaitun ART: May 2011

It is not a woman who served as the model for these paintings, but Gerda Wegener's husband, Einar Wegener. Lili Elbe was "born" one day when Gerda asked Einar to wear stockings and heels so that she could substitute Einar's legs for those of her model. Over time, Gerda became famous for her paintings of beautiful women with haunting almond-shaped eyes dressed in chic fashions. In approximately 1913, the unsuspecting public was shocked to discover that the model who inspired Gerda's depictions of petite femmes fatales was in fact Einar. He was himself a painter, felt more a women than a man and was one of the earliest to have an operation to switch genders.