Agnes Slott-Møller
Picture this: it's the height of Denmark's golden age of realism, when painters were expected to chronicle fishermen, farmers, and the noble dignity of everyday labor ... and then Agnes Slott-Møller hands you a woman flying over the sea on borrowed bird wings.
The subject is Blidelil, a maiden from an old Danish folk ballad. She's been bewitched by a mysterious man named Tidemand, who sent her enchanted roses to make her fall for him. Now under his spell, she's borrowed her sister's wings to soar across the water and find him—not knowing that the story ends in tragedy for them both. Slott-Møller has frozen the tale at its most suspended, hopeful moment: the instant between longing and disaster.
Slott-Møller, working alongside her husband Harald, was captivated by the Middle Ages and folk balladry at a time when most of her Danish peers were painting modern life. Inspired by English artists exploring similar territory (think Pre-Raphaelite medievalism—the same aesthetic universe that gives us today's fantasy games and shows like Game of Thrones), she carved out her own lane: one dense with symbolism and pathos.
There's something quietly rebellious underneath the fairy tale, too. Around 1900, women's roles were very much in question, and Slott-Møller (an independent, professional artist herself) seemed drawn to heroines with more fire and agency than the 19th century typically allowed its women.
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P.P.S. Here are 5 mythical love stories depicted in art!