Her mother, Ingeborg Westenholz Dinesen, was the daughter of a wealthy shipowner. Later Dinesen made much of the contrast between her hedonistic and aristocratic paternal relatives and her practical and prosperous maternal ones. Her father committed suicide in 1895, when Karen Dinesen was ten years old. According to the family legend, he took his life because he had contracted syphilis. It was widely known that the disease could lead to a slow death from madness. Karen, his second daughter, nicknamed "Tanne," had been his favorite child, and his death left a lasting impression on her psyche.
The death of Dinesen's father left an extended family of women to support each other materially and spiritually. Her grandmother and her aunts, who lived at a neighboring estate, helped with the moral supervision and education of the children. Dinesen showed a special aptitude for painting and, after the age of eighteen, took classes at the Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Several of her paintings survive, including beautiful portraits of Africans. Although painting never became more than a pastime for her, her writing was profoundly influenced by the artist's perspective, relying on colors and images to express sensations and emotions.
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