Georgia Skovgaard

Brought up in a lively Grundtvegian home among visitors from the Danish world of culture, she was not given a formal education but acquired skills in drawing, painting and needlework from the artists who were friends of her parents.

It was N. F. S. Grundtvig himself who conducted the marriage ceremony at which the bride wore a veil with honeysuckle and wild flowers which she had embroidered herself from a design by Skovgaard.

Georgia Skovgaard sketched both classical monuments and naturalistic subjects while travelling in Italy with her husband in 1854–55.

It was Skovgaard who introduced the embroidery of Danish flora which was further developed at the beginning of the twentieth century by Gerda Bengtsson.

Her husband also encouraged her to embroider depictions of animals including swans, dolphins, and deer which were often used in upholstery.