By Robbie LaFleur

I first saw Frida Hansen’s Southward (Sørover, 1903) in person in Peter Pap’s Oriental Rug Gallery in Dublin, New Hampshire, hanging on a 13′ high wall.  I was more amazed at its impact than I anticipated. It was not only the color that was captivating; the scale was enveloping and striking. The maidens are almost life-sized. I stepped forward to examine the watery world of the swans and the borders. 

A water theme is woven into the wide borders. Deep blue mussels are placed around the border and in the corners of the tapestry. 

Pale figures floating along the borders may represent flotsam on the water, or maybe a horseshoe crab? They are delicate and intricate.

No photo can match the impact of seeing the tapestry in person. It’s hard to discern in this photo, but when viewing a swan neck up close you can see that even solid areas of colors include areas of slightly different shades. This neck is not one light shade, but several similar shades of ivory. Also, you can see that the vertical area of the neck was not woven in one piece, but in several triangular or diamond sections, creating what weavers call “lazy lines.” They add interest and liveliness to the surface.

Many maidens are similar. Four maidens have faces facing slightly forward with both eyes visible; they are pulling the swan necks back and are wearing dresses with a large circle pattern. Three have a sideways profile. They are leaning forward and have dresses with roses. The same cartoon was likely used for each set of figures. 

The reins around the swans’ necks are some of my favorite details. No two of the serpentine ribbons are the same. 

While the figures are similar, Frida Hansen wove their hair in varying patterns of bright orange and brown that contrast beautifully with the blue waves. Also in those photos below, note Frida Hansen’s mastery of weaving a transparent effect. You can “see through” the bonnets to either water or the body of another swan. The tiny pricks of grayish-bronze are woven with silver thread; they must have had a shimmery effect when the areas were still bright and shiny, untarnished. 

The areas of Southward woven with silver thread have tarnished from silver to a beautiful bronze-gray. It’s a sign of Frida Hansen’s design mastery that the now-darker areas are beautifully distributed (in the reins, dresses, and bonnets) and have graphic punch. Still, it would be wonderful to go back in time and see shiny silver threads. The silver threads are thinner than the wool, so the metallic areas are more finely-woven. When viewing the tapestry in person you can appreciate the subtle contrast of smooth versus wooly surface area. 

Even in a small black-and-white reproduction, Southward is a lovely design. But seeing it at full scale, in real life, and in color is startling. The large area of open waves is striking, and the variation in the wave colors is captivating; it seems random, but was surely planned. The maidens are sailing in on swans from the right, and some are incomplete, like there might be a whole flotilla underway. 

 The diagonal design of Southward has been compared to The Milky Way (Melkeveien), woven in 1898 and sold to the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg.

Frida Hansen wove an earlier tapestry with similar motifs to Southward, Mermaids and Swans (Havfruer og Svaner, 1892-1893).

It is interesting to compare Southward with Mermaids and Swans, woven ten years earlier. The motifs in the earlier tapestry are more angular, while the swans and border motifs of Southward are more fluid and flowing, displaying Hansen’s Art Nouveau assurance and mastery.

According to a Wikipedia entry on Frida Hansen, the earlier tapestry is only known through an old photo, and according to Aftenposten [a major Norwegian newspaper] from December 7, 1893, it was probably sold to a buyer in California. It is another missing Frida Hansen tapestry in the U.S.—perhaps we’ll see it in color someday too?

February 2022

Author’s note: All of these color photos were taken before the tapestry was cleaned, and the difference was amazing. Here is a photo of the tapestry after cleaning. 

A few posts from the Winter Show, with further discoveries and visitor reactions: Tonight Frida Hansen’s Rediscovered Tapestry will be Revealed (March 31, 2022), Sørover (Southward) at the Manhattan Winter Show (April 2, 2022), Frida Hansen’s Southward: Musing on the Border and People Who Live Near the Ocean (April 3, 2022), and Frida Hansen’s Southward Tapestry: A Conversation Recap (April 4, 2022). 

Robbie LaFleur is a weaver and writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has been following a thread of Scandinavian textiles since she studied weaving at Valdres Husflidskole in Fagernes, Norway, in 1977. She is a Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum Gold Medalist in weaving, coordinates the Weavers Guild of Minnesota Scandinavian Weavers Study Group, and publishes the Norwegian Textile Letter. Contact: lafleur1801@me.com. Blog: robbielafleur.com. Instagram: robbie_lafleur

February 2022; updated April 2022