'Still Life, Agave With a Japanese Woodblock Print' by Victor Isbrand, Paris, Post-Impressionist

Description

Signed lower left, 'V. Isbrand' for Victor Isbrand (Danish, 1897-1989) and painted circa 1935.

Precocious as a child, Victor Isbrand … more Signed lower left, 'V. Isbrand' for Victor Isbrand (Danish, 1897-1989) and painted circa 1935.

Precocious as a child, Victor Isbrand painted professionally from a young age and was invited to exhibit at the 1915 Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition, a full two years before his graduation from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Over the course of a long career, he was the recipient of various national scholarships and stipends including the Ronge (1917), the Charlottenborg Art Academy (1919-1920) and the State Art Foundation Scholarship (1978-1988). Isbrand exhibited widely and with success including, for over seventy years, at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Kunsthalle Charlottenborg. He was also the recipient of numerous medals, prizes and juried awards including the Charlottenborg Gold Medal for 'Aphrodite and Eros' (1919).

Initially influenced by Cubism, Isbrand developed his mature style over a prolonged period spent painting in in the East where he explored the roots of both Primitivism and Orientalism. In Java, he stayed for two years near the temple of Borobudur, which inspired many young artists in search of a perceived lost simplicity in life and art. From these studies, Isbrand derived both landscape and figurative motifs which he used for several years after his return, moving towards a more realistic style of painting. He developed this style further during his time in Paris in the 1920’s and a major work from this period shows students at the Croquisskole sketching school in Paris, where he has captured the colorful, international crowd at this famous art school. Isbrand traveled and painted widely, including in Siam, Malacca, China, Japan, France, Greenland and Southern Europe before returning to Denmark to where he accepted a teaching post at Copenhagen's School of Applied Arts. Here, he became a leading proponent of Modernism and his elegant articulation of Modernist art theory came to influence an entire generation of Danish painters. Victor Isbrand's works are held in private and public collections worldwide including the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, Denmark.

Reference:
E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. 7, p. 372; Thieme-Becker Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zu Gengenwart, Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 1992, Vol. 19, p. 243; Weilbach, Dansk Kunstnerleksikon; et al. less