Lili Elbe

01Gerda Wegener's paintings of 'Lili' were exhibited and celebrated in Paris art circles in the 1920s before Einar's transition.
02Einar underwent at least four surgeries in Dresden and Berlin between 1930 and 1931 — among the earliest such procedures on record.
03The Danish government annulled Einar and Gerda's marriage in 1930, one of the first such legal acts related to gender transition in Europe.

Illustration of a Hungarian Hajduk, from an 1703 book from Bavaria.

Einar Wegener spent years modeling for his wife Gerda's paintings — posed as a woman named Lili — and gradually understood that Lili was not a costume. The story became 'The Danish Girl,' but the real life ended in 1931 in a Dresden hospital, aged forty-eight.