Known as the Swedish Sarah Bernhardt, (1.) stage actress Gerda Lundequist (1871-1959) is photographed here in profile by Henry Buergel Goodwin, (1878-1931) considered Sweden’s most important pictorial photographer from the first World War period through the 1920’s. A contemporary of Alvin Langdon Coburn, Goodwin like Coburn learned the art of copper-plate gravure printing in his Stockholm studio and published several limited-edition volumes including Konstnärsporträtt, (1917) (Artist portraits) which was similar to Coburn’s Men of Mark. (1913)

This portrait of Lundequist was included along with 23 other plates of artists in the Konstnärsporträtt volume, although this example is believed to be a hand-pulled restrike by Goodwin from the original plate. (not by JB Obernetter) This print was personally dedicated to noted American pictorial photographer Louis Fleckenstein (1866-1943) by Goodwin:

To Brother Louis
This Hand-print
with His hope of a meeting
in Europe 1922 from
Henry B.G.

Known print sources: Fru Gerda Lundequist-Dahlström

–Konstnärsporträtt: Stockholm: limited edition of 200 copies published by Goodwin in 1917; with 24 tipped-in photogravure plates prepared by him and printed by JB Obernetter in Munich.
–Idun: published in the Swedish weekly women’s magazine Idun: December. 9, 1917, p. 4.
-photogravure postcard, 1917. Stockholm?

Print provenance: Estate of Louis Fleckenstein

1. see: Career: Gerda Carola Cecilia Lundequist: Wikipedia profile accessed, March, 2014:  “Lundequist was considered one of Scandinavia’s leading tragediennes and dramatic stage actresses, and she originated many leading female parts in plays by Ibsen and Strindberg. She had a 60 year long career as a professional actress (with debut 1889) before she made her last performance in 1949, as Julia Hylténius in the successful staging of the comedy The Barons Will by Hjalmar Bergman. She studied at The Royal Dramatic Theatre’s acting school 1886-1889 and in 1891 appeared as Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, a performance that established Lundequist at the top. In 1890, she originated the role of Anne-Marie in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and in 1897 the role of Ella Rentheim in Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman.”