Kirsten Kjær

Maren Kirstine "Kirsten" Kjær (1893–1985) was a self-taught Danish painter from northern Jutland. After a rather confused early life, in 1925 she realized she wanted to paint and, inspired by Gauguin's works, made a trip to France. From 1926, she spent three successful years on the west coast of the United States, exhibiting in San Francisco and Oakland. On her return to Denmark, she visited Skagen where she met the Swedish writers Brita von Horn and Elsa Collin who introduced her to art circles in Stockholm. After World War II, she traveled widely, painting both portraits and landscapes in Poland, Lapland, Iceland, Tunisia and Liberia. Her colourful, expressive and increasingly decorative portraits depicted not only well-known figures of her times but also ordinary people she came across on her travels. Many of her paintings are exhibited in the Kirsten Kjærs Museum at Frøstup near Thisted in the north of Jutland.