Isaac Grünewald

At the outbreak of the First World War in 1915, the Grünewald-Hjertén family returned to Sweden from Paris. They brought with them the knowledge of colours, Fauvism and Expressionism that they had learned from Matisse and the German Expressionists they had met in Berlin. 1917 was the year of Isaac Grünewald's real breakthrough with solo exhibitions in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Bergen.

"Simplification, grandeur, expressiveness, clarity - see there the solution of the new art" This is how Isaac Grünewald begins one of his lectures, which can be read in the publication "Isaac har ordet". The quote fits well with the auction's painting “Kvinna I blå klänning (Sigrid Hjertén)”.

Created during the artist's productive but turbulent period of 1916-17, the painting displays all the characteristic features of Isaac Grünewald's paintings from this period. The background is somewhat sketchy, consisting of spatial simplifications balanced by a surface full of 'drama' - in this case, Sigrid's body forming a soft S-curve and the intensely patterned shawl she wears.

Painting each other was of course a practical solution when livelihoods were scarce and there was no money to hire a model. The painting juxtaposes elements of forms in an exciting way, and it is clear that Henri Matisse was an artist who inspired Isaac Grünewald! The blue colour is the dominant one and is subtly juxtaposed with the pink tones of the shawl. The fact that cold light fields produce warm shadows and that warm light fields produce cold shadows was something that Isaac Grünewald and also his wife Sigrid Hjertén were extremely aware of, and it is clear that this "optical problem" occupies the artist in the auction’s painting as well as in other of his paintings from this period.

In conclusion, the painting is a particularly interesting addition to Isaac Grünewald's works from this period!