Exhibited: Den Frie Udstilling, “Fortegnelse over Arbejder af Bertha Wegmann”, 1911 no. 146, here entitled “Lille Pige med en Pusteblomst” (A young girl with a dandelion clock). Charlottenborg, “Bertha Wegmanns Mindeudstilling”, October 1926 no. 221, here entitled “Marthel med en Pusteblomst, Wølfelsgrund” (Marthel with a dandelion clock, Wölfelsgrund). Øregaard Museum, “Bertha Wegmann på Øregaard”, 1998 no. 19. The Hirschsprung Collection & The Skovgaard Museum, “Bertha Wegmann”, 2022.

Literature: Gertrud Oelsner & Lene Bøgh Røberg (ed.), “Bertha Wegmann”, The Hirschsprung Collection & The Skovgaard Museum, Strandberg Publishing, 2022, ill. p. 155 and mentioned p. 156.

Bertha Wegmann often painted still lifes with wildflowers and weeds, and dandelions were also included in several of her motifs. In 1895, the dandelion was used as a symbol and logo for the great Women's Exhibition (Kvindernes Udstilling), at which Wegmann was also represented. The wild, unruly dandelion, which spreads its seeds and sprouts everywhere, thus in time became a symbol of the women's movement and the modern, irrepressible woman. Lene Bøgh Rønberg writes about Wegmann's flowers: “Wegmann's flower painting can [...] be regarded as a platform for negotiation where the wild flowers not only represent the artist's great love of untamed nature but also - seen in the light of the women's liberation movement - draw on the uncultivated plant's capacity for uncontrolled, strong-willed growth. It is hardly a coincidence that Wegmann often reproduces the dandelion's fascinationg seeds, concentrating the plant's potential for unchecked growth [...]. In other words, the flowers seem to incarnate an actor who insists on their presence and agency in defiance of established frameworks and rules.” (Lene Bøgh Rønberg, “Was anything missing?” in “Bertha Wegmann”, The Hirschsprung Collection & The Skovgaard Museum, Strandberg Publishing, 2022, p. 159).

Wölfelsgrund (Międzygórze) is a beautiful village in the southwestern part of Poland, located at the foot of the Glatz Mountains (Masyw Snieżnika) at an altitude of 560 to 680 meters above sea level. At the end of the 19th century, Międzygórze was one of the most exclusive spa towns in Germany.