Girl with braids by a chair
Oil on canvas 64 x 56 cm. Marked No 106 verso.
The artist's collection.
Thereafter by inheritance within the artist's family.
The auction's painting "Girl with Braids" was part of Ivan Ivarson's private collection until the artist's passing in 1939. Thereafter, the painting was passed down within the artist's family. The work is a classic example of his style as one of the foremost representatives of the Gothenburg Colourists. Characteristic of Ivan Ivarson's mature style are the swift, broad, and form-creating brushstrokes where certain colours, particularly blue, green, and red, are given an "indescribable luminosity."
Ivan Ivarson studied at Valand School of Fine Arts in Gothenburg under Tor Bjurström. He was strongly inspired by French modernism, particularly Pierre Bonnard, after travels in Europe in the late 1920s. The similarity between the French post-impressionist Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) and the Swedish Gothenburg Colourist Ivan Ivarson (1900–1939) lies in their colour-lyrical temperament and ability to use colour as an independent means of expression rather than merely to describe reality. During his time in France (1927–1928), Ivan Ivarson was profoundly influenced by Bonnard's shimmering treatment of light and "vibrant" colour surfaces. Both artists worked with saturated and intense colours that often blend into a kind of visual poetry. Pierre Bonnard's late works, such as garden scenes, are matched by Ivarson's expressionistic yet vividly coloured landscapes from, for example, Stenungsön or France.