Bjorn Wiinblad (1919-2006) Danish, Rosenthal Riera Hand Painted Porcelain Vase. Mid Century design, part of his "Love Story" series for the company. The oval piece displays a woman kneeling amongst tree branches, with birds alighting on them and her. Signed on the back bottom edge. Marked with original label on the underside. 

Size: 7 1/4 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. 

Bjørn Wiinblad (1919-2006) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and attended a drawing school in his youth before studying painting and illustration at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1940 to 1943. He was attached to the United States Embassy in Paris in 1947 as a poster designer, and his first showing in America was in New York in 1954, followed by Japan, Australia, and Canada over the next decade. Wiinblad was an important designer for the Rosenthal porcelain company starting in the 1960s, as well as a stint working for Nymolle, a Danish pottery, but he is best remembered for his whimsical round-faced people, dressed in vaguely 19th Century costume, often inspired by the works of Hans Christian Andersen and Asian themes and motifs that adorned posters and many signs throughout Denmark, as well as the Olympic Games for the Handicapped at Seoul, the New World Symphony Orchestra Academy in Miami, and the Royal Danish Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, all in 1988. His textile work was used for costumes for numerous ballets and stage presentations in the late 20th Century, and throughout his later years he experimented with painting and designing pieces in silver and bronze in addition to his regular ceramics and graphic illustrations. Wiinblad was named Man of the Year in New York in 1985 and was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Cultural Prize of 1995, and today museums the world over still display his work including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Stockholm’s National Museum. 

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