Einar Jolin

When Einar Jolin painted "Young Woman Reading an Art Journal" in 1919 he was already an established name in the Swedish art world. Having studied in Paris under Henri Matisse, Jolin came to occupy a central position in the development of modernist painting in the Nordic countries, not least because of his participation in many groundbreaking exhibitions in the 1910s. Studies under Matisse had given Jolin’s work a decorative focus and a unique palette that clearly shows in his portraits. Jolin worked with portraits throughout his life, and the painting now on sale is a fine illustration of the symbiotic relationship between sitter and setting that he created.

We meet a young modern woman immersed in an open art journal showing a picture of a colourful abstract painting that is radical for its time. The fashionably dressed woman wears a modern hairstyle, and her leg rests nonchalantly on a chair. The Oriental smoking table and the stylised dish hanging on a green wall suggest that the place is in all likelihood the Jolin family home at Kammakargatan 45, in the so-called “Jolin’s House” built by the artist’s grandfather, Johan Jolin. The composition shows clear influences from Matisse, while demonstrating the sophisticated sense of colour and line that made Jolin one of the most beloved Swedish artists of the 20th century.

Bukowskis is pleased to have the privilege this autumn of putting Young Woman Reading an Art Journal on sale for the first time, a piece that undoubtedly occupies a special place in Einar Jolin’s portraiture.