Karen Kjaersgaard's Danish Folk Costume Drawings
Karen Kjaersgaard, circa 1969
Image Credit: piaper.dk
Annual Christmas Postage Stamp Series Submission 1968
Image Credit: MikaelsKarenKBlog.com
Image Credit: MikaelsKarenKBlog.com
Apparently Denmark has an annual Christmas series of postage stamps, and artists submit their design proposals each year. As the story goes, in 1968 Karen K. submitted the proposal above. Those with a keen eye will note that many of her drawings were inspired by the 1964 F.C. Lund sketches (e.g. Læsø) and the 1952 Ellen Andersen book "Folkedragter i Danmark" (e.g. Randers).
Karen K's 1968 postage stamp submission was not accepted. Perhaps it was too brown.
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However, sometimes our greatest victories arise like a phoenix from the ashes of our most crushing defeats, as demonstrated by Karen K's "postcards," (1968-1975), below.
Christmas Postcards 1968-1975
Image credit: Mikael Bjerregaard
Between 1968 and 1975, artist Karen Kjærsgaard (1932-2014) collaborated with Denmark's Familie-Journalen magazine to produce holiday cards which appear to have been sent to subscribers of the magazine. Each postcard represented a regional Danish folk costume. As such, her collection of 50 folk costume drawings represents an excellent overview of the most significant Danish folk costumes. Many of Karen K's drawings were inspired by F.C. Lund's original 31 lithographs published in 1864 and its subsequent editions through 1915.
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Blogger Mikael Bjerregaard has an outstanding blog at MikaelsKarenKBlog.com where he artfully and wittily presents Karen K's postcards and explains the context behind them in a manner better than this author ever could.
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Thus, I have tried to shed light on certain other aspects of Karen K's postcards that might be of interest to the reader.
