Bukowskis Presents "Cirkus" by Isaac Grünewald at Modern Art & Design
Bukowskis presents the work "Cirkus" from 1918 by Isaac Grünewald as one of the season’s highlights at Modern Art & Design – the leading live auction for modern art and design in the Nordics.
The painting was part of a suite of three works that were prominently displayed in the dining room of the Grünewald Villa in Saltsjöbaden. "Cirkus" is one of a handful of groundbreaking paintings created by Isaac Grünewald in the second half of the 1910s that have become some of the most significant works of early modernism. "Cirkus" belonged to Grünewald’s private collection and remained within the family until it was sold at auction in 1997.
The story of the young, bold, and talented boy who went to Paris (1908–1911) to apprentice under the bon vivant Henri Matisse is one of the 20th century’s favorite Swedish art tales. Isaac described his first encounter with Matisse’s painting as an explosion of color: “Suddenly, I stood before a wall that sang—no, roared—with color and radiant light. Here I faced something entirely new and relentless in its uninhibited freedom.” This freedom appealed to Grünewald, and he quickly enrolled in Matisse’s prestigious painting school, whose radical approach attracted many of the era’s leading artists.
Under Matisse’s guidance, Grünewald and the other Swedish students abandoned the Nordic color palette and restrained brushwork, transitioning to an expressive color scheme and dramatic forms. Isaac Grünewald and Sigrid Hjertén, his future wife, became leading figures of the groundbreaking Expressionism that fundamentally changed Swedish art history.
This new, pioneering art movement, which completely broke with earlier traditions, was initially met with resistance from both critics and gallery visitors. It would take nearly a decade—until the major Expressionist exhibition of 1918 at Liljevalchs—for Sweden to embrace this new way of seeing art. The Expressionist exhibition marked a milestone in Swedish art history and became the public breakthrough for the participating artists: Isaac Grünewald, Sigrid Hjertén, and Leander Engström. Isaac exhibited 220 works, Sigrid 170, while Leander Engström displayed 65. This exhibition featured some of Swedish modernism’s most significant works, including “Det sjungande trädet,” “Apachedansen,” “Tjurfäktning,” and “Cirkus.”
“Cirkus” is part of a suite of three paintings from 1917/18 that hung prominently in the dining room of the Grünewalds’ villa in Saltsjöbaden. “Apachedansen” (privately owned) and “Tjurfäktning” (held at the Norrköping Art Museum) all share motifs taken from the circus arena, where a dynamic interplay of movement, color, form, and light is central.
To the catalogue
The work will be sold at Modern Art & Design
Estimate 8 000 000 - 10 000 000 SEK
Catalogue online November 4
Viewing November 12–17, Berzelii Park 1, Stockholm
Live auction November 18–19, Arsenalsgatan 2, Stockholm
Read more about Modern Art & Design
All works by Isaac Grünewald at Modern Art & Design
Hammer price
150 000 SEK
Estimate
100 000 - 125 000 SEK
Hammer price
2 350 000 SEK
Estimate
1 800 000 - 2 000 000 SEK
Hammer price
1 550 000 SEK
Estimate
800 000 - 1 000 000 SEK
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Stockholm
Louise Wrede
Head of Art Department, Specialist Contemporary Art, Private Sales
+46 (0)739 40 08 19
Stockholm
Andreas Rydén
Head Specialist, Art, Deputy Managing Director
+46 (0)728 58 71 39
