A Mountain Climber

Standing on the top of the world, the woman looks out across the monumental mountain landscape. Her pose is relaxed: one hand rests on her walking stick, the other on her hip. The attire is sporty, including a snug sweater. Gone are the constricting corsets of the past, allowing room for physical activity. The woman is Jens Ferdinand Willumsen’s wife, the sculptor Edith Wessel, who has ascended to the top of the mountain by her own strength, now standing there as a powerful symbol of the modern, independent woman. The Alps and the Norwegian mountains formed the backdrop for Willumsen’s many depictions of man triumphant in nature. Mountains and, especially, man as gender and body, as ruler of nature and the world, were the key motifs in his art, often, as here, depicted with fierce brushstrokes and bold colours. Willumsen approached all sorts of art forms and modes of expressions with voracious appetite. As a painter, sculptor, architect and ceramicist, he had a talent and range that very few on the contemporary European art scene could rival (50 Favorites in the SMK Collection).