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Natascha de SENGER, also known as Natascha MICHEEW-KULLBERG and Natascha ALEXANDROVNA JUSUPOV (YOUSSOPOV), was a Swedish and Swiss sculptor and painter.
Natascha de SENGER was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, on April 19, 1925. She came from a family of the Russian aristocracy, part of the white emigration. Her family settled in Stockholm a few years after her birth. Her mother, Elena PAVLOVNA born SCHEREMETIEFF (SHEREMETIEV), was also a painter.
At the age of 6, Natascha modelled her first sculptures, which led her to meet Carl ELDH and become his student. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm where she was awarded several prizes. Prince Eugen of Sweden became her patron.
After completing her studies, Natascha de SENGER went to Geneva, Switzerland, from where she travelled the world until the 1950s to continue her training with the greatest painters and sculptors of her time. She went to the United States to be with the Swedish sculptor Carl MILLES, who was, at the time, head of the sculpture department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She also spent time in Finland with the Finnish artist and sculptor Waino ALTONEN and in Italy, with the Italian sculptor Giacomo MANZU, professor at the Academy of Brera.
Natascha de SENGER also worked with the Swedish sculptor, painter and graphic designer, Eric GRATE in his studio in Skjeberg south of Leksand.
Natascha de SENGER’s life was very cosmopolitan, punctuated by trips around the world for her sculptures and paintings (she spoke six languages fluently!). She had studios in Sweden (Stockholm, Tällberg), Austria (Vienna), the United States (New York), France (Saint-Paul de Vence) and Switzerland (Celerina, Geneva) where she resided for many years. She became a Swiss national.
Natascha de SENGER died in Tällberg, Sweden, on March 13, 2012. She is buried in the Cimetière des Rois (Cemetery of Kings) in Geneva for her contribution to the city’s reputation.
In 2023, the Geneva State Council approved the proposal by the commune of Collonges-Bellerive to name the square at Chemin du Pré-d’Orsat 8 and 10 “Place Natascha-De-Senger”.
Throughout her career, the artist signed her works under different names: Natascha, Natascha Alexandrovna, Natascha de S., N. de Senger, Natascha de Senger, Natascha Jusupov, Jusopov and Nalthus.
These changes have sometimes been challenging for collectors, gallery owners and individuals who have known her or followed her under different identities.
Animals have always played a major role in Natascha de SENGER’s life. All her life, she was surrounded by animals which would turn out to be a source of inspiration and abnegation.
In 1980, she founded in Geneva the association O.M.A.U.S.A.: Organisation Mondiale des Arts Unis pour la Sauvegarde des Animaux (World Organization of Arts United for the Saving of Animals). The objective of her association was the protection of endangered animal species, the improvement of their quality of life and the preservation of nature.
Her dedication accompanied her to Sweden where she founded the same organization in 1991. Her first project was the preservation of wetlands and marshlands in decline including migratory birds.
During her lifetime, Natascha de SENGER was most famous for her sculpture, especially for her public works which still welcome thousands of tourists every year in Switzerland and Germany.
Natascha de SENGER also created significant pictorial works, including an important production of portraits and animal scenes. Indeed, since her childhood and throughout her career, animals were one of the most fertile sources of inspiration for the artist, both in sculpture and painting.
The “Mermaid of Lake Geneva” & the “Pan God” are a pair of bronze sculptures.
Natascha de SENGER was fascinated by nymphs, female deities of nature, characterized by their youth, their beauty and their love for the gods.
It was when she saw the erratic boulder emerging a few fathoms from the “Port Fleuri” property in Collonge-Bellerive on the shores of Lake Geneva (canton of Geneva, Switzerland), where she lived with her husband François-Louis de SENGER, that her mind was set on a nymph.
So, she set to work and, in the fall of 1966, the “Mermaid of Lake Geneva”, also known as the “Nymph of Lake Geneva” appeared on the rock.
The Mermaid of Lake Geneva, like the Little Mermaid of Copenhagen (1913), one of the main tourist attractions of the Danish capital, is inspired by the eponymous tale of Hans Christian ANDERSEN (1837) who regularly came to the shores of Lake Geneva during his stays in Switzerland between 1833 and 1873.
Numerous tourists visit the “Mermaid of Lake Geneva” by boat thanks to the Mermaid Cruise organized by the Swissboat company, departing from the Mont-Blanc quay in Geneva. It is also possible to visit her from the mainland, at “Nymph beach” (la plage de la nymphe), a gift from the de SENGER family where Natascha’s workshop was located, in a small park well known by the Collongeois-Belleriviens.
The “Mermaid of Lake Geneva” was inaugurated during a ceremony at Port-Fleuri where the Geneva Landwehr Music Corps played the “Triumphant March” (Marche triomphale) of the 1889 Fête des Vignerons, a work by composer Hugo de SENGER.
Poetry and art being one in the artist’s soul, it is thus that the mystery of the Nordic saga was intertwined with mythology and that she imagined, with romanticism, a continuation of the story for her little mermaid… “Forgoing for a moment the lure of the waves, the little nymph would turn her face towards the shore, attentive only to the melody that a Pan God would play for her on his flute”. This is how the work of the Mermaid was joined in 1967 by the Pan God and how the artist’s work was completed.
The sculpture of “Pan God” is inspired by Pan, a god of Greek mythology known for frolicking with nymphs, and one of whose symbols is the panpipes. The artist’s mermaid now had her own god to watch over her.
Natascha de SENGER used her friend Rudolf NUREYEV (NOUREEV), as a model. He was a famous Russian star ballet dancer and choreographer, with whom she shared similar origins, family history and precociousness in art. Natascha de SENGER winked at her husband by replacing the foot of the Pan God with his recognizable toe.
The artist’s work “The Mermaid and the Pan God” was celebrated that same year (1967) during the famous international horse show in Geneva, which hosted the “Nymph of Lake Geneva” competition, where each female competitor was teamed up with a masculine rider.
The “Mermaid of Lake Geneva” was bequeathed to the Commune of Collonge-Bellerive.
“Loreley” is the name of a rock that rises 132 meters above the Rhine near St. Goarshausen, Germany. Located in the narrowest and most dangerous passage of the Rhine, this reef, surrounded by many submerged rocks, has caused many shipping accidents.
This place has long captivated imaginations and aroused the fear of sailors. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the misfortunes it causes have been attributed to a female spirit imagined by the writer Clemens BRENTANO.
From her castle above the Rhine, Loreley is a young girl who, sitting on the eponymous rock, is said to have bewitched foreign sailors with her song and caused their ships to crash. For the local fishermen, however, she showed the safe way around the cliffs.
This nix was immortalized by Heinrich HEINE in his famous poem “Die Loreley” (1824) and then by Friedrich SILCHER in a song (1837) which became a popular song on the Rhine.
Natascha de SENGER designed Loreley (Lorelei, Lorelei or Lorely) in bronze and offered it to the town of St. Goarshausen, which wanted a sculpture to represent this legend. On August 6, 1983, a myriad of spectators gathered on the shore and on boats to witness the unveiling of the Loreley statue, 3.30 meters high and weighed 850 kilos.
Since then, with its statue, the Loreley saga finally has a visible expression of this legend and the site has become a popular tourist spot. Thousands of visitors come every year to greet the Loreley from the shore or from a cruise ship, both for the beauty of the place and for the legend that surrounds it.
With the exception of her public works, Natascha de SENGER’S artistic production is mainly dispersed throughout the world in private collections.
Among her sculptures are mythological representations, busts, dancers and many animals, such as “The Fight of the Lipizzaner Horses” (le combat des chevaux lipizzans) (1959), work given to the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi.
Among her paintings, Natascha de SENGER has done several portraits, including for Pandit NEHRU and his family, for the Shah of Iran and his family, for former King Umberto II of Italy and his wife Queen Marie-José, and for actor David NIVEN. She has also done several portraits of fellow Swedes, including her friend the actress Greta GARBO, the Nobel Prize winner in physics, Gustav DAHLEN, the actor Olof LJUNGGREN and his family as well as the Ambassador Harald EDELSTAM to whom she was married.
During her lifetime, Natascha de SENGER was most famous for her sculpture, especially for her public works which still welcome thousands of tourists every year in Switzerland and Germany.
Natascha de SENGER also created significant pictorial works, including an important production of portraits and animal scenes. Indeed, since her childhood and throughout her career, animals were one of the most fertile sources of inspiration for the artist, both in sculpture and painting.
The “Mermaid of Lake Geneva” & the “Pan God” are a pair of bronze sculptures.
Natascha de SENGER was fascinated by nymphs, female deities of nature, characterized by their youth, their beauty and their love for the gods.
It was when she saw the erratic boulder emerging a few fathoms from the “Port Fleuri” property in Collonge-Bellerive on the shores of Lake Geneva (canton of Geneva, Switzerland), where she lived with her husband François-Louis de SENGER, that her mind was set on a nymph.
So, she set to work and, in the fall of 1966, the “Mermaid of Lake Geneva”, also known as the “Nymph of Lake Geneva” appeared on the rock.
The Mermaid of Lake Geneva, like the Little Mermaid of Copenhagen (1913), one of the main tourist attractions of the Danish capital, is inspired by the eponymous tale of Hans Christian ANDERSEN (1837) who regularly came to the shores of Lake Geneva during his stays in Switzerland between 1833 and 1873.
Numerous tourists visit the “Mermaid of Lake Geneva” by boat thanks to the Mermaid Cruise organized by the Swissboat company, departing from the Mont-Blanc quay in Geneva. It is also possible to visit her from the mainland, at “Nymph beach” (la plage de la nymphe), a gift from the de SENGER family where Natascha’s workshop was located, in a small park well known by the Collongeois-Belleriviens.
The “Mermaid of Lake Geneva” was inaugurated during a ceremony at Port-Fleuri where the Geneva Landwehr Music Corps played the “Triumphant March” (Marche triomphale) of the 1889 Fête des Vignerons, a work by composer Hugo de SENGER.
Poetry and art being one in the artist’s soul, it is thus that the mystery of the Nordic saga was intertwined with mythology and that she imagined, with romanticism, a continuation of the story for her little mermaid… “Forgoing for a moment the lure of the waves, the little nymph would turn her face towards the shore, attentive only to the melody that a Pan God would play for her on his flute”. This is how the work of the Mermaid was joined in 1967 by the Pan God and how the artist’s work was completed.
The sculpture of “Pan God” is inspired by Pan, a god of Greek mythology known for frolicking with nymphs, and one of whose symbols is the panpipes. The artist’s mermaid now had her own god to watch over her.
Natascha de SENGER used her friend Rudolf NUREYEV (NOUREEV), as a model. He was a famous Russian star ballet dancer and choreographer, with whom she shared similar origins, family history and precociousness in art. Natascha de SENGER winked at her husband by replacing the foot of the Pan God with his recognizable toe.
The artist’s work “The Mermaid and the Pan God” was celebrated that same year (1967) during the famous international horse show in Geneva, which hosted the “Nymph of Lake Geneva” competition, where each female competitor was teamed up with a masculine rider.
The “Mermaid of Lake Geneva” was bequeathed to the Commune of Collonge-Bellerive.
“Loreley” is the name of a rock that rises 132 meters above the Rhine near St. Goarshausen, Germany. Located in the narrowest and most dangerous passage of the Rhine, this reef, surrounded by many submerged rocks, has caused many shipping accidents.
This place has long captivated imaginations and aroused the fear of sailors. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the misfortunes it causes have been attributed to a female spirit imagined by the writer Clemens BRENTANO.
From her castle above the Rhine, Loreley is a young girl who, sitting on the eponymous rock, is said to have bewitched foreign sailors with her song and caused their ships to crash. For the local fishermen, however, she showed the safe way around the cliffs.
This nix was immortalized by Heinrich HEINE in his famous poem “Die Loreley” (1824) and then by Friedrich SILCHER in a song (1837) which became a popular song on the Rhine.
Natascha de SENGER designed Loreley (Lorelei, Lorelei or Lorely) in bronze and offered it to the town of St. Goarshausen, which wanted a sculpture to represent this legend. On August 6, 1983, a myriad of spectators gathered on the shore and on boats to witness the unveiling of the Loreley statue, 3.30 meters high and weighed 850 kilos.
Since then, with its statue, the Loreley saga finally has a visible expression of this legend and the site has become a popular tourist spot. Thousands of visitors come every year to greet the Loreley from the shore or from a cruise ship, both for the beauty of the place and for the legend that surrounds it.
With the exception of her public works, Natascha de SENGER’S artistic production is mainly dispersed throughout the world in private collections.
Among her sculptures are mythological representations, busts, dancers and many animals, such as “The Fight of the Lipizzaner Horses” (le combat des chevaux lipizzans) (1959), work given to the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi.
Among her paintings, Natascha de SENGER has done several portraits, including for Pandit NEHRU and his family, for the Shah of Iran and his family, for former King Umberto II of Italy and his wife Queen Marie-José, and for actor David NIVEN. She has also done several portraits of fellow Swedes, including her friend the actress Greta GARBO, the Nobel Prize winner in physics, Gustav DAHLEN, the actor Olof LJUNGGREN and his family as well as the Ambassador Harald EDELSTAM to whom she was married.
Natascha de SENGER was married three times.
Descendant of the protestant KULLBERG family, Fred KULLBERG was the grandson of August KULLBERG, a brilliant Swedish industrialist, also known as the “King of Katrineholm” since he founded Kullberg & Co, one of Sweden’s largest companies of the 19th and early 20th centuries, whose headquarters were located in Katrineholm.
Descendant of the protestant EDELSTAM family, Swedish Ambassador Gustav Harald EDELSTAM was known for helping hundreds of Norwegians of the Jewish faith, special operations agents and resistance fighters escape the Nazis during World War II. Then, in the 1970s, he saved hundreds of Chileans, diplomats, Cuban civilians, and Uruguayan and Bolivian refugees from persecution by the dictator Augusto PINOCHET, while stationed in Santiago de Chile.
Each year the EDELSTAM Foundation awards the EDELSTAM Prize to a person who has demonstrated outstanding contributions and courage in the defence of human rights.
Grandson of the Geneva composer Hugo de SENGER, Swiss businessman and publicist, François-Louis de SENGER was the founder and owner of Annonces Senger, publisher of numerous newspapers (Femina, Elle, Bilan, Bilanz, Zürcher Woche, Trente Jours, Illustrazione Ticinese, etc.).
Descendant of the HOCHSCHILD family, Gerardo HOCHSCHILD ROSENBAUM was the son of Moritz HOCHSCHILD, known as DR. Mauricio HOCHSCHILD, a famous entrepreneur known as the tin magnate. Moritz HOCHSCHILD will be remembered for his little-known role as the “Schindler of Bolivia”, whose correspondence on this subject is listed as World Heritage by UNESCO in the “Memory of the World” program.
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