woodcarver and metalworker, was born on Møn, an island off Denmark. Before coming to Australia in 1890 [1896 acc. Cook] to marry a Dane, she is thought to have had some formal art training in Denmark. In 1906-7 Elisabeth studied repoussé work under F.W. Atkins at the Sydney Technical College. She exhibited in the 1907 Women’s Work Exhibition at Melbourne and in the preliminary exhibition in Sydney, with entries in both competitive and student categories. She joined the Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW that year and regularly exhibited in its annual exhibitions from 1909 to 1922. She was on the Committee and a member of the selection committee until 1920.
An accomplished woodcarver, Söderberg also excelled in designing and making metalware. She worked predominantly in copper, silver and brass, being assisted by her dentist husband in the production of the tools and the plaster casts of objects used for her designs. Her attractive bowls, candlesticks and tankards decorated with Australian flora and fauna motifs were often selected by the Society of Arts & Crafts as gifts for patrons and visitors. In the best examples of Söderberg’s work the naturalistically rendered flying foxes, cicadas and Geebung berries are imaginatively applied to the objects to become an integral part of the design. She also drew on marine life for her imagery, and she continued to use traditional Scandinavian motifs. Most of her decorative metalwork shows a notable Art Nouveau influence.
Söderberg returned to Denmark in 1922. She died in Copenhagen in 1939, bequeathing fifty works, all made in Australia, to members of the Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW. Part of the collection was presented to the Art Gallery of NSW, others to the Technological Museum (now Powerhouse Museum) and some sold to establish a memorial fund from which the Society made an award for 'best executed exhibit’ at the annual exhibition for some years. The pieces she sent out, in silver, brass and copper and enamel work, included decorations of cicadas, frilled lizards and bats and also included pottery, weaving, furniture – notably a dining room suite in exotic turquoise, silver and black – and needlework ( Daily Telegraph 14 September 1939).
A 'bat bowl’ inspired by the Australian Little Red Flying Fox ( Pteropus scapulatus ) was shown in the annual exhibition of the Society of Arts and Crafts in 1912 and purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 1921 Söderberg redesigned the bowl, giving it a more streamlined, tapering shape that allowed her to maximise the impact of the highly decorative features of the flying fox and, at the same time, fully integrate the animal with the bowl. The resulting repoussé copper and brass Flying Fox Bowl 1921 (8 × 22.9 cm), made shortly before she returned to Copenhagen, is one of her most successful metalwork designs. Part of the Powerhouse bequest, it was included in the museum’s 'Style’ exhibition in 1988-89. The museum also chose a silver sugar spoon with geebungs worked on the flat handle.
- Writers:
- Czernis-Ryl, Eva
- Date written:
- 2011
- Last updated:
- 2011
