GREENLAND (2020)-SEPAC- Art Work

The artwork depicted on the 2020 Greenlandic Sepac stamp was selected in collaboration with Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqar - alu / The Greenland National Museum & Ar- chive in Nuuk. The piece, titled ‘Mother pulling off her daughter’s boots’, is a watercolour that was painted at the beginning of the 20th century by Christine Elisabeth Lund Deichmann. 

The painter and her importance

Christine Elisabeth Lund Deichmann (1869 – 1945) was one of the first female students to attend the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. She was accepted to study at the academy of ne arts at the age of juthirteen, where she would paint and study for twelve years until she married Doctor Henrik Deichmann in 1894.

The couple’s only child, a daughter whom they named Elisabeth, was born during the summer of 1896. The family lived in Green- land from 1901 to 1910, where her husband wasthedistrictdoctorforQaqortoq,Sisimiut and Uummannaq. As the wife of their doctor, Christine Deichmann was able to study closely the local populations of various locations in Greenland. This led to a proli c production of everyday portraits. She also painted many watercolours and drew many pictures of land- scapes and animal life. Christine Deichmann’s most famous images from Greenland depict- ed Greenlanders’ everyday life, in which she was very interested. Christine Deichmann was a well-known artist during her own lifetime. Over the course of her career she exhibited in Denmark, Sweden and Italy, doing so from 1898 to 1931, always as part of prominent contemporary art exhibitions. When she was widowed in 1939, she followed in her daugh- ter’s footsteps and emigrated to the USA, where she lived until her death in 1945. She was buried in Copenhagen. Christine Deich- mann is still considered an important artist in Greenland, as her naturalistic works portray family lives in Greenland just after the turn of the century. Reproductions of her art still appear on greetings cards, postcards and post- ers in Greenland and in Denmark. The Nuuk Art Museum and Greenland National Muse- um continue to exhibit her work. Her pictures are still sold at international auctions.