Hi Binkie,
Lucky you :)
Beneith my translation of the article about Sikker Hansen in the web edition of the Danish national Encyclopedia:
Sikker Hansen, Aage, 1897-1955, Danish graphic designer and illustrator.
He became a journeyman painter 1916, after that trained as lithographer; self-taught as an artist.
Sikker Hansen became an illustrator at Politiken's*) Sunday supplement Magasinet 1932.
Sikker Hansen developed a round and soft line, which stresses the figures' curves and a sensual, sweetness-full atmosphere in descriptions by among other things women and children; his lithographs with these motives won wide popularity.
From 1930 he made a huge number of posters, for FDB [Forenede Danske brugsforeninger ~ United Danish Cooperative Stores] among other things the classic Davre-Gryn [oatmeal] (1945) and Cirkel Kaffe [Coffee] (1955), and he made numerous jackets and illustrations to among other things Johs.V. Jensen's Kongens Fald **) (1944), Hans Christian Andersen’s Historien om en moder ***) (1950) as well as non-fiction books about animals by Hans Hvass.
Among several decorative tasks he decorated the Sikker Hansen-hall at Politiken*) (1937).
NOTES
*) Politiken
The biggest Social Liberal, national newspaper in Denmark, founded 1884 and in the days of Sikker Hansen renowned for its cultural-intellectual leftism
A book about Sikker Hansens illutrations in Politiken's Magasinet.
**) Kongens Fald
The fall of the king is a wonderful Danish historical novel, taking place in the 16th century under the reign of King Christian II. The description of The Massacre of Stockholm, 1520, where 82 noble men and citizens were executed in public in the market place to consolidate the power of King Christian, is famous.
The novel was first published in three parts during 1900-1901, and the author, Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873-1950) was granted by the Nobel Prize in Literature 1944.
The novel har been translated into English several times, but never with the drawings of Sikker Hansen, as far as I am informed:
The fall of the king / by Johannes V. Jensen ; authorized English version by Patrick Kirwan. - London : Grayson & Grayson, 1935. - 286 pages
The fall of the king / by Johannes V. Jensen; translated from the Danish by P. T. Federspiel and Patrick Kirwan. - New York : H. Holt and company [c1933]. - VI, 300 pages.
The fall of the king / Johannes V. Jensen ; translated by Alan Bower. - Revised edition. - Traverse City, Mich. : Stonehill, 1995. - 280 pages. - ISBN: 0-9643394-2-0
As Kongens Fald is nominated part of the Danish Ministry of Culture's Canon of Danish literature, you may see a few of Sikker Hansen's illustrations from the book at The Cultural Canon's webpage
***) Historien om en Moder
"The story of a mother" / by Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875).
See English translations at:
The Hans Christian Andersen Center at The University of Southern Denmark or
an old English translation from H. P. Paull (1872) NB! The illustrations at this webpage are old traditional illustrations from Vilhelm Pedersen and not those from Aage Sikker Hansen.
IMAGES
Posters from Sikker Hansen
15 posters from Aage Sikker Hansen at Dansk Plakatmuseum (the Danish Poster Museum). Click the thumbnails to see a bigger reproduction.
14 posters from Aage Sikker Hansen for sale.
TEXTS ABOUT AAGE SIKKER HANSEN
An article about Sikker Hansen as an artist at the Danish Weilbachs Kunstnerleksikon
Dansk Plakatmuseum has published a long text about Sikker Hansen as an artist as well.
Danish-English translation machine on the Internet
As you probably do not read much Danish, here is a link to the best Danish-English translation mashine, I know of:
http://www.gramtrans.com
This mashine is undergoing a continous developement. At the moment it will translate a few short texts on the spot, but for longer texts you have to sign in. Getting and searching with a password is for free as well, the owners just need to make statistics on longer texts :)
Good luck :)
Ms Nielsen
Reference Librarian
Denmark
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