COPENHAGEN, Feb 4 — Denmark’s 83-year-old Queen Margrethe, who abdicated in January in favour of her son Frederik, on Saturday won Denmark’s equivalent of an Oscar for best costume designer.
The royal was honoured with a Robert Award for her work on the Netflix film Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction, an adaptation of a book by Danish author Karen Blixen, best known for her memoir Out of Africa, and directed by Bille August, one of the Scandinavian country’s most acclaimed filmmakers.
The ex-monarch, who cited health issues when she announced her shock abdication in her annual New Year’s Eve address, was not present at Saturday’s award ceremony in Copenhagen.
The film’s producer, Marcella Dichmann, accepted the prize on her behalf.
Alongside her royal duties, the queen has made a name for herself as an accomplished artist over the years.
She is a painter and illustrator, and has worked as a costume and set designer with the Royal Danish Ballet and Royal Danish Theatre on numerous occasions.
The queen also designed the sets for Ehrengard and was nominated for a Robert prize in that category as well.
Hugely popular in Denmark, Margrethe studied at Cambridge in England and the Sorbonne in Paris, and is fluent in English, French, German and Swedish.
She has also translated plays, including Simone de Beauvoir’s All Men Are Mortal with her French-born husband, the late Prince Consort Henrik, under a pseudonym.
She has illustrated several books, including a Danish 2002 edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and her paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries in Denmark and abroad.
Margrethe underwent major back surgery last year, and passed the throne to her son on January 14 after a 52-year reign, making him King Frederik X.
She has retained her title of queen following her abdication. — AFP
