The Postcard
A postcard that was published by the Gibson Art Company of Cinncinnati. The card was posted using a one cent stamp on Friday the 22nd. June 1917. It was sent to:
Mrs. A. A. Merryfield,
Kezar Falls,
Maine.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"I wish you a Happy
Birthday.
I wish you could be here
or I could come down
there.
Love to you and Florence,
From
Iola."
Kezar Falls
Lying a few miles southeast of the White Mountain National Forest border, Kezar Falls is an unmarked local spot with a modest-sized gorge and a few small waterfalls. The site has a dark rust-colored pool below the falls.
Kezar Falls doesn't really offer much out of the ordinary, but it makes a fine place to read, picnic, or engage in any other relaxing activity. Locals say that this area is a favorite party spot for young adults during the late hours of the day, but the site shows little evidence of this.
The Arrest of Lucy Burns
So what else happened on the day that Iola posted the card?
Well, on the 22nd. June 1917, police in Washington, D.C., arrested Lucy Burns, a prominent member of the suffragist protest group Silent Sentinels, for obstructing traffic.
She was holding a banner quoting U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's speech to United States Congress:
"We shall fight for the things which we
have always carried nearest our hearts—
for democracy, for the right of those
who submit to authority to have a voice
in their own governments."
The charges were later dropped.
Kristian Zahrtmann
The day also marked the death of the Danish painter Kristian Zahrtmann. Kristian was a member of the realism and naturalism movements in Denmark.
Peder Henrik Kristian Zahrtmann was part of the Danish artistic generation in the late 19th. century, along with Peder Severin Krøyer and Theodor Esbern Philipsen; they broke away from both the strictures of traditional Academicism and the heritage of the Golden Age of Danish Painting, in favor of naturalism and realism.
Zahrtmann was known especially for his history paintings, and especially those depicting strong, tragic, legendary women in Danish history.
He also produced works of many other genres including landscapes, street scenes, folk scenes and portraits.
Zahrtmann had a far-reaching effect on the development of Danish art through his effective support of individual style among his students during the many years he taught.
In addition, his bold use of color dazzled contemporaries and has been seen as an anticipation of Expressionism by art historians.
-- Kristian Zahrtmann - The Early Years
Zahrtmann was born in Rønne, Denmark, on the island of Bornholm to chief doctor for the island Carl Vilhelm Zahrtmann (1810–1896) and wife Laurine Pouline Jespersen (1822–1918).
He was the eldest child among seven boys and two girls. After graduating from Rønne Realskole at 17 years of age, Zahrtmann was sent to Sorø Academy, where he studied painting with landscape painter Hans Harder.
He was often a guest at the home of the Academy's Director, poet Bernhard Severin Ingemann and his wife, where he had the chance to socialize with teachers of the school and other guests, such as Hans Christian Andersen.
Zahrtmann graduated in 1862, and received his Cand. Phil. in 1863. During these years he lived with a family whose daughter was a painter, and this inspired him also to try his luck as an artist.
After graduating, Zahrtmann came to Copenhagen, where during the winter of 1863–1864 he studied drawing at the Technical Institute under Christian Hetsch and architect Ferdinand Vilhelm Jensen.
Zahrtmann then began his studies in October 1864 at the Royal Danish Academy of Art. Classmates included August Jerndorff, Peder Severin Krøyer, and Rasmus Frederik Hendriksen.
-- Kristian Zahrtmann's Early Artistic Career
Zahrtmann graduated from the Academy in 1868, and exhibited for the first time at Charlottenborg the following year with A Young Girl Being Confirmed on Bornholm.
He exhibited regularly at Charlottenborg from 1869–1891, and sporadically afterwards.
He became friends with painter Otto Haslund and Pietro Købke Krohn, later Museum Director, with whom he shared a studio.
-- Leonora Christina and Other Historical Subjects
Zahrtmann had already become interested in the story of the heroic 17th. century daughter of a Danish king, Leonora Christina Ulfeldt, before the 1869 posthumous publication of her 1674 autobiographical narrative Remembrance of Misery, which he received as a birthday gift.
Countess Leonora Christina of Schleswig-Holstein, King Christian IV's daughter by his morganatic love marriage to a noble Danish maiden, had fallen from grace because of her husband Corfits Ulfeldt's high treason.
She was then imprisoned for 22 years in the Blue Tower in Copenhagen Castle, and spent her final years in the solitude of the Maribo Cloister.
Zahrtmann commemorated her story in a series of 18 large paintings over many years.
The first of these paintings was made public in 1871, Castle Keeper Banters with Women in the Chamber of the King's Daughter in the Blue Tower.
The painting won him a Neuhausen Prize, was sold to Niels Laurits Høyen's influential Art Union, and was followed by a series of other paintings on the same theme. These paintings established his reputation as one of the leading artists of his time.
At the same time Kristian explored other motifs, although Leonora Christina was an obsession that followed him throughout life. In 1872 he made a portrait of Georg Brandes, who summered near Zahrtmann at Christiansholm near Klampenborg north of Copenhagen.
In 1873 he won another Neuhausen Prize for Sigbrit Reviews Tax Accounts with Christian II, and exhibited a preparatory painting for Job and His Friends, which won him the Academy's gold medallion in 1887.
In 1873 he also painted Scene from the Court of Christian VII 1772 in order to retell the tragic story of Queen Caroline Matilda on the centennial of the fall of Johann Friedrich Struensee. Characteristically for Zahrtmann, he made several other paintings over the years depicting the story of these individuals.
-- Kristian Zahrtmann's Travels
Zahrtmann tried to extract a travel stipend from the Academy three times, which should have been due him as winner of the large gold medal, but the funds were not forthcoming until two years later. Zahrtmann spent the summer of 1873 at Hornbæk in the company of fellow painters Peder Severin Krøyer and Viggo Johansen.
Zahrtmann finally traveled to Italy in December 1875 with financing from his father, before he received a travel grant from the Academy.
Between 1875 and 1878 he resided in Italy (Rome, Siena, Amalfi and Saracinesco), where he produced a number of paintings.
Kristian later returned to Italy many times, including in 1882–1884. He was fascinated by everyday life there, by the strong Italian sun, the vivid colors, and the exotic splendor of Roman Catholic Church rites which he depicted in many paintings.
In June 1883, Zahrtmann traveled for the first time to Civita d'Antino, a mountain town which he came to consider to be his second home.
Between 1890 and 1911 he spent every summer in Civita d'Antino, living with the Cerroni family and gathering friends and students in an annual artist colony. He was named an honorary citizen of the town in 1902.
Zahrtmann also traveled to Greece several times, as well as to France and Portugal.
Zahrtmann exhibited at the World's Exhibition in Paris in 1878, 1889, and 1900, and in Chicago in 1893. He won a bronze medallion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900.
-- Kristian Zahrtmann's Teaching Career
Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler was established in the winter of 1882 – 1883 as a protest against the Art Academy's policies and as an alternative to its educational program.
Zahrtmann taught at the school from 1885 to 1908. In 1893 he became the leader of its preparatory class, which under him turned into an independent department. He had some 200 students from the Scandinavian countries.
Because of his prominence as a teacher, the school was often simply referred to as "Zahrtmann’s School".
He also helped establish the "Free Exhibition," an alternative exhibition space, which opened in 1891.
-- Kristian Zahrtmann's Later Artistic Career
Zahrtmann made a number of portraits of his parents, including one of his father in 1887, and one of his mother, who played a significant role in his life, in 1899–1901.
These, as well as a large format painting of both parents in their living room from 1895 to 1901, are in the collection of the Bornholm Art Museum.
In 1900 Kristian overwintered in Portofino where he painted the color-drenched landscapes Harbour in Portofino, 1900 and My Lunch Table in Portofino, 1900.
-- Kristian Zahrtmann's Homoerotic Works
Later in life, Zahrtmann produced a number of paintings of nude men, including Prometheus (1906), Socrates and Alkibiades (1907, 1911), and Adam in Paradise (in two versions, 1913–14).
In an era that was still shaken by the Great Scandinavian Sexual Morality Debate of the outgoing 19th. century, these works were immediately criticised as scandalous violations of public decency.
The treatment of Adam is particularly provocative, with its vital, young, muscular Adam casually concealing his manhood with a sprig of fig leaves while leaning back in a lush, vividly colored botanic paradise. His legs are apart, and the snake arched halfway up his leg is darting its tongue.
Museums primly declined to purchase these homoerotic works, and most are still in private hands. Zahrtmann never married, and in Copenhagen he was rumored to enjoy cross-dressing.
-- Kristian Zahrtmann's Self-Portraits
Zahrtmann also painted a number of self-portraits in his later years, including one painted in 1913 that is considered one of his finest works. It is in the collection of the National Historic Museum at Frederiksborg Palace.
-- Kristian Zahrtmann's House and a Documentary
Zahrtmann bought land on Fuglebakken in Frederiksberg and built a house, which was designed by Hans Koch and Zahrtmann himself. He called the house "Casa d’Antino," and moved in during the autumn of 1912.
Zahrtmann appeared in a 1913 silent-era documentary film about himself entitled Kristian Zahrtmann, which was directed by Sophus Wangøe.
-- Kristian Zahrtmann's Death and Legacy
In June 1917 Kristian was hospitalized with appendicitis. After an apparent improvement his condition worsened, and he died at the age of 74 on the 22nd. June in Frederiksberg. He was laid to rest in Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen.
A relief with the theme of "Leonora Christina Leaves the Prison" decorates his grave. The relief was drawn by architect Thorvald Bindesbøll and painter Joakim Skovgaard, and was carved from Bornholm granite by Larsen Stevns.
In Civita d’Antino a memorial plaque was set into the wall of the Cerroni house near the town gate. A monument with a statue of Zahrtmann was erected on the open plaza in front of his house, and the plaza is named after him.
Numerous paintings by Zahrtmann became available to the public when the Imago Museum opened in Pescara in 2021.
A portrait of Kristian by Vilhelm Hammershøi (1899) is found in the Hirschsprung Collection.
