The motive shows a woman with no mouth but instead holding a sign reading her name: “Renske Feyken”. Who is Renske Feyken?
If you visit the old whaler’s cemetery on the island of Borkum (Germany) you will find the grave where she has been buried for over 250 year. More recently, plaques were erected to give some account of the people. It describes her as an ex-wife who could not bear any children. The plaque then tells how many children her ex-husband had with his second wife (who both are not buried at that spot) and how many whales he hunted. One might think that the life of women, who lived on an island while the men went hunting whales off the coast of Greenland for months at a time, would be more interesting. The question remains…Who is Renske Feyken?
~ Borkum, Hamburg – Germany ~
