Vilhelmine Jais Oppenheim

Ville Jais-Nielsen was born in Randers on 1 May 1886, the daughter of the merchant Carl Oppenheim and his wife Jeanette. She studied at the Art School for Women and worked for the silversmith Georg Jensen and the porcelain manufacturer Bing & Grøndahl. She also studied under Othon Friesz in Paris, Harald Giersing in Copenhagen and Henrik Sørensen in Oslo. She was a founder of Den Frie Udstilling, an alternative exhibition venue for avant-garde artists in Copenhagen. She married the painter and ceramist Jais Nielsen in 1920 and had a son, Henrik, who became an architect. She was influenced by Fauvism, Cubism and Art Nouveau, and experimented with various media and genres, such as oil, watercolor, lithography, ceramics, landscapes, still lifes and murals. She was known for her portraits of women, which showed sensitivity to the effects of lighting. She had to flee to Sweden during the Second World War because of her Jewish origin, where she continued to paint. She returned to Denmark in 1945 and died in Gentofte on 7 November 1949.