A royal wedding gift

This wall plate, painted by Christian Benjamin Olsen (1873-1935) for Royal Copenhagen, was a wedding gift for the Danish king. The entwined initials C and A refer to King Christian X and his wife Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. An avid sailor, the king built no fewer than six maxi yachts (racing yachts with a minimum length of 21 metres) during his reign, all of which he named Rita. The plate shows Rita III in the bay off Aarhus. In the background is Marselisborg Palace, which the Danish people gifted to Christian and Alexandrine when they were married in 1902.

Olsen was a true marine painter and a good friend of the royal couple. So good, in fact, that he accompanied them on several sea voyages, including to Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. It would appear that Alexandrine even knitted special woollen gloves with open fingertips so that Olsen could still hold his brush on the cold aft deck. The wall plate that Olsen painted for their silver jubilee must have given Christian and Alexandrine enormous pleasure.