Rediscovered swan. Photo: Robbie LaFleur
By Robbie LaFleur
When well-known rug dealer Peter Pap opened a container and spied a folded tapestry with swans last year, he knew immediately he had struck tapestry gold–but he didn’t know he was solving a nearly 100-year old mystery.
In 1903 famed Norwegian artist Frida Hansen wove red-haired maidens sailing on swans in a tapestry of impressive scale (11’3” x 10’3”). In an image from Norse mythology, the flotilla in Sørover (Southward) was sailing south, having brought the warmth and light of summer to the north.
The tapestry itself sailed from Norway as soon as it was cut from the loom, as it was purchased by Berthe Aske Bergh of Brooklyn, New York, a weaving instructor and passionate promoter of Norwegian billedvev (tapestry). She had been a student of Frida Hansen. During the next 27 years, Southward was admired by many viewers in exhibitions at museums and other public venues. (See “Southward on Display.”) Though every reference to Southward praised its shining threads and beautiful colors, until today the only photographs documenting the tapestry were black-and-white, and blurry at best.
Photo from House Beautiful magazine, June 1929.
After 1931, there were no written references to Southward on display. Berthe Aske Bergh lived until 1954, and remained active in the Norwegian-American community. Did she sell the tapestry, perhaps because she needed the money during the Great Depression? That remains a puzzle, but the mystery of the tapestry’s location has been solved!
Frida Hansen. Sørover (Southward), 1903. Photo: Peter Pap (Photo taken before cleaning.)
Peter Pap discovered Southward in 2021. The tapestry was last purchased from a New England family (name unknown) around 2010 by an antique dealer in New Hampshire who was Peter Pap’s friend. It was not displayed. Peter Pap described the dealer as a generalist who had an eye for something special, the sort of dealer to whom inventory of beautiful objects felt like money in the bank. The dealer passed away before selling many of his treasures; Southward was part of his estate.
To give a sense of scale: Robbie LaFleur and Peter Pap examine Southward in Peter Pap’s New Hampshire Gallery.
We don’t know where the tapestry was for many decades, but it was clearly hung with great care, or kept in environmentally safe storage. It was in excellent physical condition, but nearly 120 years of dust obscured the vibrant colors that Frida Hansen intended. Peter Pap sent the tapestry to Denver, Colorado, to be cleaned by the person he most trusted to care for the tapestry, Robert Mann. Careful washing brought out amazing brightness and contrast within the image. (See “Finding Frida Hansen’s Colors Again: Cleaning Southward.”)
Years of dust flows from the Southward. Photo: Robbie LaFleur
Southward, in all its restored glory, was exhibited and for sale by Peter Pap at the Winter Show in New York City from April 1-10, 2022, the first public opportunity to see this magnificent tapestry in 91 years. The last known year it was displayed publicly was 1931, when it was part of an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The International Exhibition of Modern Tapestry (February 07-February 28, 1931). That fall it was part of an exhibition of antique and modern tapestries at the Montclair (New Jersey) Art Museum (October 11-November 8, 1931).
Here is a photo of the fully restored tapestry after washing. (The difference is amazing.)
Frida Hansen. Sørover (Southward), 1903
Southward is still for sale. See this listing.
Read more:
Close Encounters with Frida Hansen’s Swans and Maidens. 2022. See detail photos of Southward.
Finding Frida Hansen’s Colors Again: Cleaning Southward. 2022. Frida Hansen’s missing tapestry was found in fantastic shape–except for nearly 120 years of dust!
Southward on Display. 2022. Frida Hansen’s tapestry was exhibited at least 15 times from 1905-1931. Read how contemporary accounts praised its beauty.
Frida Hansen: A Brief Biography. 2022. The accomplishments of Frida Hansen (1855-1931) as an entrepreneur, a crucial figure in the revival of Norwegian weaving, teacher, designer, and fine artist are difficult to summarize in a short overview.
Searching for Southward, A Missing Frida Hansen Tapestry. 2019. This article is largely about Berthe Aske Bergh, the Brooklyn woman who purchased Southward.
Frida Hansen: Will We Ever See her Woven Swans and Maidens?. 2018. This was the original article written about the missing tapestry.
While at the Winter Show on April 1-2, 2022, I posted about 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).
Frida Hansen’s Southward: More Provenance Puzzle Pieces are in Place. (August 2022)
February, 2022; updated May 2023
Finally, we can see the red-haired maidens and blue of the waves.
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