The Wild Swans. Découpages and costumes by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark for the film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale
8 October 2012 - 2 December 2012
General Staff Building

On 9 October 2012, at the State Hermitage Museum, in the halls of the General Staff building, an exhibition of decoupages and costumes designed by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark for the film adaptation of The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen was opened. For many years Her Majesty has been involved in illustrating the work for the great Danish writer, and in the film adaption of The Wild Swans, produced by Jacob Jorgensen’s film company JJ-Fillm, she took on the role of scenographer. Using modern technology and green screening the film creates a theatrical universe, woven entirely from the Queen’s decoupages. The exhibition displays 43 decoupages by Her Majesty and 11 costumes which she designed specially for the film, as well as for the green screen technology used in the film. The film itself is displayed in one of museum halls.

Items on display from the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense have caused a large amount of interest. These include the first publication of fairytales by Andersen in Russian, a book of fairytales published in 1943 during the blockade of Leningrad. Furthermore the exhibition also features original paper silhouettes, which was an art the Danish writer was extremely fond of.

Visitors to the exhibition will also an original letter written by Andersen after the departure of Princess Dagmar (later Empress Maria Fedorovna) from Denmark to St. Petersburg in Russia.

The exhibition was organised by the State Hermitage Museum in cooperation with the Danish Royal Court, JJ-Film and the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense.

The Wild Swans: Decoupages and Costumes designed by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark for the Film Adaptation of a Fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson exhibition is a continuation of the State Hermitage Museum programme to display artworks by contemporary artists as part of the Hermitage 20/21 programme. The Hermitage 20/21 project was initiated in 2007 by Mikhail Piotrovsky, the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum. The project’s goal is to acquaint museum visitors with more recent tendencies in contemporary Russian and western art.

The exhibition curator is Ekaterina Lopatkina, a Research Associate at the State Hermitage Museum Department of Contemporary Art.

Palace and city 2009 Larger view	Palace of Fata Morgana 2009 Larger view
Countryside 2009 Larger view	Princes’ room 2009 Larger view