Elna Fonnesbech Sandberg

Elna Fonnesbech-Sandberg was born in Copenhagen in 1892 to a wealthy family. She studied history of art at the University of Copenhagen and developed an interest in modern art. She started collecting paintings by Danish modernist and expressionist artists in the late 1920s, but had to sell them during World War II due to financial difficulties. She then became friends with Asger Jorn, one of the founders of the CoBrA movement, and began to collect his works and those of his fellow artists, such as Else Alfelt, Ejler Bille, Egill Jacobsen and Carl-Henning Pedersen. She displayed her collection in her home in Frederiksberg, which became a meeting place for art lovers and critics. She also started painting herself in 1947, joining the group of abstract painters called Spiralen. She was influenced by Jorn and the CoBrA style, but also developed her own ornamental and colorful technique. She died in 1994 at the age of 101, leaving behind hundreds of paintings and posters that are now highly valued by collectors and museums.