Amazons and Centaurs Oil on Canvas Painting, 1940s by Carl Christian Forup

Amazons and Centaurs oil on canvas painting in the 1940s by Carl Christian Forup from Vejle, Denmark. This painting by Forup is one of the largest that he created during his career and is signed by him. It was said to have been painted for Gerda Wegener, Einar's wife. The ménage is known to modern audiences from the book and film The Danish Girl, which fictionalized Einar's becoming Lili Elbe, one of the first identifiable recipients of sex reassignment surgery. Certainly, the subject of this painting, with triumphant Amazons overcoming Centaurs, a traditional symbols of male barbarism, would have resonated with that couple. In Greek mythology, the Amazons were a group of female warriors and hunters, who matched men in physical agility and strength, in archery, riding skills and the arts of combat. Their society was closed for men and only raised their daughters, either killing their sons or returning them to their fathers, with whom they would only socialize briefly in order to reproduce. Centaurs are half-human, half-horse creatures in Greek mythology. They were considered to be the children of Ixion, king of the Lapiths, and Nephele, a cloud made in the image of Hera. Forup painted a broad spectrum of subjects, from portraits and genre scenes to landscapes, book illustrations and murals.

Dimensions: Height: 46 in. (116.84 cm)Width: 83 in. (210.82 cm)Depth: 3 in. (7.62 cm)

Style: Late Victorian (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques: Canvas,Paint,Wood,Painted

Place of Origin: Denmark

Period: Mid-20th Century

Date of Manufacture: 1940s