Ludwig Peter Karsten

1044/657: Ludvig Peter Karsten: Portrait ofPeter Cornelius. Signed Karsten. Oil on canvasmounted on board. 36 x 30 cm. Ludvig Peter Karsten, b. Oslo 1876, d. Paris 1926 Portrait of Peter Cornelius. Signed Karsten. Oil on canvas mounted on board. 36 x 30 cm. Note In need of cleaning.

813/760: Ludvig Peter Karsten:"Barnebillede" (Child portrait). Unsigned. Oil oncanvas. 100 x 77 cm. Ludvig Peter Karsten, b. Oslo 1876, d. Paris 1926 "Barnebillede" (Child portrait). Unsigned. Sticker on the reverse: "Det mig foreviste billede af LudvigKarsten forestillende grosserer Erik Strøjbergs datter stammer fradennes bo bevidnes herved. Viggo Madsen, Møllevej7, Lyngby" (It is hereby attested that the painting byLudvig Karsten, depicting Merchant Erik Strøjberg'sdaughter, comes from his estate. ViggoMadsen, Møllevej 7, Lyngby). Oil oncanvas. 100 x 77 cm.

DESCRIPTION signed and dated Karsten / 24 upper left oil on canvas PROVENANCE Knut & Ellisif Langaard, acquired from the artist EXHIBITED Oslo, Blomqvist, 1924 Copenhagen, Den frie Udstilling , 1924 LITERATURE AND REFERENCES Nils Messel, Ludvig Karsten , Oslo, 1995, p. 209,catalogued; pp. 181-182, discussed & illustrated CATALOGUE NOTE In January and February 1924 Karsten stayed with his friendsKnut and Ellisif Langaard at their estate Staur Gard at Stange,near Hamar in Hedemarken. There he completed some ten paintings ofthe family and the Stange landscape. As well as the present work,these included the large family portrait of Knut and Ellisif withtheir five children (private collection), and Hjem fraTravbanen (Stenersen Museum, Oslo). Shortly after leaving Staur Gard Karsten showed the paintings atBlomqvist in Oslo. Later that year he was honoured to be invited toexhibit his works at Den frie Udstilling in Copenhagen.Extremely well received by the Danish press, and much lauded by thegeneral public, the Staur Gard paintings, including the presentwork, took pride of place among the twenty-two pictures that heshowed.

Ludvig Karsten (Norwegian, 1876-1926) Interiör med to kvinner (Interior with two women) signed and dated 'Karsten/-14' (upper left) oil on canvas 14½ x 18 7/8 in. (37.5 x 48 cm.) Painted in Autumn 1914 Winter 1915 Provenance Mr. Georg Mørch, Norway. Anonymous sale, Tore Ulving Kunst - Auksjoner, 10 December 1996.Acquired at the above sale by the present owner. Literature Kunsten idag (Art today) , no. 3/4, Oslo, 1960(illustrated p. 46 as Dame som syr (Lady sewing) ). Exhibited Oslo, Kunstforening, Ludvig Karsten , 1956, no.23a. Lot Notes '[Ludvig] Karsten is in the fullest sense a modern painter, morethan any other Norwegian painter, even including Edvard Munch...Bybeing 'modern' in art means, or should mean, that one is to thehighest degree a child of his time and its conditions, in such away that he can understand it and feel its pulse not just in artbut in other areas as well'. (C. Krohg, 'De seks', Kunst ogKultur , Bergen, 1911, pp. 219-32). Turning his back upon his formal academic training, Karsten carvedout a name for himself as the primary representative for the newform of radical individualism. In this vein, it was Edvard Munchwho had the most profound influence upon his artistic adolescence,inspiring him to paint mainly Nordic summer nights, illness anddeath, mirroring the themes found in his Norwegian master's work.This is nonetheless where the similarities between these twoartists end. When Karsten moved to Paris in 1910 to work with HenriMatisse, he left the so-called narrative in his works behind andhis expression became 'pure', positioning him among the FrenchPost-Impressionists and the Fauvists. The young painter's intuitivedesire to translate reality onto canvas with limited cerebral orphilosophical input was not dampened under his new French master.While Matisse taught basic techniques to his students heemphatically encouraged them to not blindly copy his example but todevelop their own individuality. Thus, Karsten freed himself fromformal restraints, seeking to express, without fear of creativeregimentation, his fresh, sensual, irrational flair. All of whichMatisse commended highly. Once again, the young Norwegian gained a reputation, this time asan excellent colourist. Seated in both the Impressionist andExpressionist camps, he married his intuitive desire to paintreality as the eye saw it with his subjective temperament before hecould satisfactorily give his impetuous creative spirit hisdistinctive visual form. Interiör med to kvinner (Interior withtwo women) was painted during Karsten's stay back in Oslo, athis parental home at Slemdal in either the Autumn of 1914 or theWinter of 1915. The models for the work are his wife Misse (néeHaslund) and one of his sisters who often sat for him. An intimatedomestic scene, demure and quiet, is enlivened by Karsten's rapidbrushstrokes which tone in the differing hues of reds, greens andblues, which all seem at first, difficult to ascertain in theirconstituent parts, but upon reflection form a beautiful andsurprisingly complex composition. Karsten played an important role in Norwegian art of the 20thcentury for having moved beyond the formal teachings of both Munchand Matisse, his art came to signify for future generations ofNorwegian artists, a refuge from the norm, and a direct dialoguewith life.

I tanker (In thoughts) signed and dated 'Karsten/-17' (upper left) oil on canvas 50 3/8 x 29¾ in. (128 x 75.5 cm.) Painted in Copenhagen in 1917 Provenance Christian Tetzen-Lund, Denmark. Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 14 March 1989, lot 73. Acquired at the above sale by the present owner. Exhibited Oslo, Kunstnerforbundet, Ludvig Karsten, 1917. Stockholm, Liljevachs Konsthall, Ludvig Karsten, 1922, no. 100. Oslo, Kunsterforbundet/Kunstforeningen, Ludvig Karsten, 1922, no. 129. Lot Notes 'The powerful use of colour demonstrates to the full [Ludvig] Karsten's position in the French Post-Impressionism and Fauvism of his day. There is also an expressive and nervous power in the execution which illustrates Karsten's idea that all good art was a 'nervous affair': reality must be captured without spending too much effort on brain work. Otherwise, freshness would vanish and sensual reality would be lost behind dry, intellectual reflection...his pictures...had to appear on the canvas as if swept along by a Dionysian intoxication. As a result, the pictures usually seem like true battlefields of brushstrokes and colour'. (N. Messel in 'Ludvig Karsten', Scandinavian Modernism: Painting in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden 1910-1920, exh. cat., New York, 1989, p. 146).