Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (Danish, 1885–1962) Karen Blixen experienced the world visually. She had great talent as a painter, with a fine sense of colour, and through her art she wanted to tell the spectator a story, and was particularly fascinated by mythology and symbolism. To her an artist’s role was to give outward expression to an inner meaning, of which others were often vaguely aware but unable to see clearly. As Karen Blixen explained: “I always found it difficult to see how a landscape should actually look unless I had received the key from a great painter.”
Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (born Dinesen; 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962) was a Danish author who wrote works in Danish and English. She is also known under her pen names Isak Dinesen, used in English-speaking countries, Tania Blixen, used in German-speaking countries, Osceola, and Pierre Andrézel.
As a child Karen Blixen had already begun drawing and painting, and as a young woman she aspired to become an artist, even though this was not an accepted occupation for women at that time. Determined to liberate herself from the constraints of her upbringing, she enrolled at the Misses Sode and Meldahl’s School of Drawing in Copenhagen, which she attended for a year as a seventeen year old in 1903, followed by three years in the preparatory class for women at The Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.
Learning about the laws of perspective was a revelation to Karen Blixen, and the discipline and exactitude required when practising her drawing skills were later to form the basis of her work ethic as a writer. Within the framework of her drawings she could decide how to set the scene and the people in it – as she did in her tales – communicating actively with her public. Her handwriting was in itself a work of art, and as a young girl she would often make sketches in her notebooks, so that the one form of expression became inextricably linked with the other.
In 1910 at the age of twenty-five she travelled to Paris with her sister Inger (called “Ea”) for two months. She attended art classes given by the well-known French artists, Lucien J. Simon and Marie August Emile Rene Menard, both of whom were inspired by the Impressionists, whom Karen Blixen also admired. However, most of her time in Paris was spent going to parties and attending previews of art exhibitions, and after this trip there is no indication that she wanted to further a professional career as an artist. Blixen
Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (Danish, 1885–1962) “Portrait of a young Kikuyu girl” 1924 Oil on canvas 46×45 cm The portrait depicts a young Kikuyu woman who was reportedly given away with the highest dowry because she was so beautiful. In her letters from Africa Karen Blixen occasionally wrote about her artistic activities. Amongst her paintings there were a number of beautiful portraits of local farm workers, which show a deep empathy with the models’ personalities. In an interview she explained: “In my youth I wanted to be a painter, and I found some wonderful models in Africa, but they were not happy about this because they believed that if the picture were a true likeness their souls would leave them and cross over into the painting. With this in mind I don’t believe that by standing model they were paying me a compliment.” In several interviews Karen Blixen explained that it was always difficult to find time to paint: “Just as I was about to begin, my farmhands would arrive to tell me that an ox had collapsed, or that a fight had broken out”. After Karen Blixen’s return from Africa in 1931 she laid brush and paint to one side, and focussed entirely on her writing. Her visual gifts are very apparent in her tales, in which she describes landscapes and scenery so vividly that one can clearly picture them. This pervading aesthetic sense is also apparent in the décor of her own home, where colours and designs are as though taken from an artist’s palette. A selection of Karen Blixen’s paintings, charcoal drawings, and pastels is on view at Rungstedlund
“Portræt af Ereri, en gammel kikuyu” 1924 Oil on canvas 66,5 x 41 cm The old Kikuyu Ereri painted Karen Blixen in 1924 while she was living on the farm in Kenya. Karen Blixen mentions both Ereri in The African Farm and in “Farah” in Shadows on the Grass , where she writes: “Ereri was a sensible, faithful man. I painted Ereri, not because of his dress,—for, apart from the ear-rings, my poor old squatter, who had been in such close contact with our civilization, had no traditional Kikuyu ornaments,—but because I found in the structure and expression of his face a resemblance with old commoner types in my own people.”“Drawing of female bust” 1903 Pencil 100 x 65 cm Pencil, charcoal and felt-tip pen on paper. Karen Blixen drew the plaster cast of the female bust at Frøknerne Sode og Meldahls Tegneskole around 1903. The drawing is one of three with a label with the note “Antaget Prøve”, and it refers to her admission to the Art Academy’s pre-school for women, which went under the name: The Model School’s Preparatory Class in the Art School for Women connected to the Academy of Fine Arts.
Steve likely knew she was a painter. I didn’t know that or that she she was so good at it.
Her Out of Africa is a classic and in Steve’s A Sportsman’s Library, I believe. The Out of Africa film was good too. I saw a version of the book that was one of the nicest books I have seen. I haven’t been able to track it down since.
