Asta Nielsen by Freddy Wingårdh

In 1915, legendary film star Asta Nielsen met Ferdinand 'Freddy' Wingårdh, during a trip to South America. He was a Swedish fleet lieutenant and the son of a shipbuilder. They soon fell in love, according to Danish Nielsen expert Ib Monty. In the same year, Nielsen separated from director Urban Gad and in 1918 they officially divorced. Nielsen married Wingardh in 1919. Wingårdh would also act in one of Nielsen's films: Das Eskimobaby/The Eskimo Baby (Walter Schmidthässler, 1918). Together with Wingårdh, Nielsen founded the company Art-Film, with which she would produce three films: Hamlet (Sven Gade, Heinz Schall, 1921), Fräulein Julie/Miss Julie (Felix Basch, 1922), and Der Absturz/Downfall (Ludwig Wolff, 1923). In the latter film, she played with Russian actor Grigori Chmara, who became her film partner for some seven films, and from 1923 he was also her partner in private life. Asta Nielsen and Freddy Wingårdh divorced in 1923. During the first years of their love, Wingårdh made several photos of 'Die Asta'. These were used for postcards issued by the German Photochemie company in Berlin, and show a woman in love, Asta Nielsen in what must have been one of the happiest periods of her life.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1301. Photo: Freddy Wingårdh. Watercolour sketch of Asta Nielsen in her outfit of Dora Brandes (Magnus Stifter, 1916).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1304. Photo: Freddy Wingårdh.  Asta Nielsen  wears the dress from Die Börsenkönigin/Queen of the Stock Exchange (Edmund Edel, 1915).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1305. Photo: Freddy Wingårdh.  Asta Nielsen  in Engeleins Hochzeit/Engelein's wedding (Urban Gad, 1916).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1308. Photo: Freddy Wingårdh.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1309. Photo: Freddy Wingårdh.  Asta Nielsen  in Das Liebes-ABC/The ABC of love (Magnus Stifter, 1916).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1312. Photo: Freddy Wingårdh.  Asta Nielsen  in Dora Brandes (Magnus Stifter, 1916).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1313. Photo: Freddy Wingårdh.  Asta Nielsen  in her outfit from Das Versuchskaninchen/The guinea pig (Edmund Edel, 1916).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1315. Photo: Freddy Wingårdh.  Asta Nielsen  in Das Versuchskaninchen/The guinea pig (Edmund Edel, 1916).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1423. Photo: Neutral-Film.  Asta Nielsen  and Freddy Wingårdh in their outfits from Das Eskimobaby/The Eskimo baby (Walter Schmidthässler, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2108. Photo: Freddy Wingårdh.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2508. Photo: Freddy Wingårdh. Asta Nielsen in the stage pantomime 'Der verlorene Sohn' (The Lost Son, 1918).

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