Elsa Thoresen (b. Minnesota 1906, d. USA 1994)
Surreal composition. Signed E. Thoresen. Oil on canvas. 54×65 cm.
Provenance: Private collection, Sweden.
Elsa Thorsen is born in the United States of Norwegian parents. She first studies at the School of Arts and Crafts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo. Here she meets Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen, whom she later marries. Elsa Thoresen continues her studies at the Académie des Beaux-arts in Brussels in 1927–29, before settling in Denmark. Thoresen and Bjerke-Petersen are fleeing to Sweden during the war, where they live for a number of years. They divorce in 1953, after which Thoresen moves permanently to the United States with her two children.
Thoresen belongs to the group of Danish surrealists, and she maintains a lifelong friendship with Rita Kernn-Larsen. They were – together with Franciska Clausen – some of the few women who were allowed to participate in international exhibitions, such as the Surrealism Exhibition in Paris, 1938.
Condition report available on request.
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