MARGRETHE II - A MULTITALENT |
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Painting is only one example of Queen Margrethe's many skills - she has been given many assignments within different areas of culture and handicrafts.
The most significant of her assignments are the designs of ecclesiastical textiles - chasubles and frontals (altar hangings) for Danish Cathedrals. Every textile has its own story and religional context. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien inspired the Queen to create drawings and watercolours filled with images based on the stories in the book. The Danish version of the book was published in 1977 with the Queen's illustrations redrawn by the British artist Eric Fraser. Her Majesty has also made scenographies for the ballet, theatre and television. The most comprehensive project took place in the year 1991 and it consisted of the décor and more than one hundred costumes for the national romantic ballet at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. The décor for the animated film The Snow Queen, H.C. Andersen´s fairy tale, was also made by the Queen. The film is made as a type of play with actors who, with the aid of digital technology, act with the Queen's oval décor sheets.The technique received its name from the French word "découper", to cut out.
In addition to all these tasks demanding a creative touch the Queen has designed stamps for Denmark and Greenland, postcards for Unicef, The Red Cross and for the WWF to name a few, designed posters for instance to rise funds for the Balkan war victims, illustrated calendars and made drawings for the new Danish, Faeroeish and Greenlandish Bible. In 1984 she designed the motif for the Christmas spoon. These spoons have been made annually since 1910 and the designing is trusted every year to a different artist. The spoon which was created by the Queen is the most popular one and the ultimate best-seller. In addition to The Lord of the Rings and the Bible Queen Margrethe has also illustrated other books and translated texts, for instance Simone de Beauvoir's novel All Men are Mortal from French into Danish. The translation was made together with Prince Henrik under the pseudonym of H.M. Vejerbjerg.
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