BERTH DORPH
Danish 1875-1960

AVAILABLE WORKS

Celebrated Danish artist Bertha Dorph was well known for her paintings of family and children, flowers, landscapes, and portraits, as well as her design work with silverware and furniture.

Born in Copenhagen in 1875, Dorph was privately educated from 1893-1897 under the well-known Danish artists Harald Slott-Møller and Peder Ilsed. She spent a year training in Berlin and studied etching at the Schinkel-Akademie, debuting in 1899 at Den Frie Udstilling (The Free Exhibition). She married fellow painter Niels Vinding Dorph in 1900 who was influential to her work, and continued her education both at home and abroad including in Italy, France and England. From 1902 to 1915 Dorph and her husband ran an art school. In 1915 she became a member of the Arts and Crafts School for Women, and in 1916 was co-founder of the Female Artists Society. Her painting of a young woman awaiting childbirth and “Christmas Night” (not in Ollerup Church, Funen) are considered among her best works, and in 1907 she won the Thorvaldsen Medal for “A Visit to the Young Maternity Patient”. Her work as a designer includes the 1922 Christmas Spoon for Anton Michelsen. Dorph died in Hillerød in 1960 and is buried in Søllerød Cemetery.