Victor Isbrand

VICTOR ISBRAND (Denmark, 1897 - 1989).
"Costumbrista scene", ca. 1920.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 64 x 80 cm; 75 x 90 cm (frame).

Victor Isbrand dedicated an important part of his life to travel around the world, and he left evidence of this in attractive paintings made in Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Greenland or Africa. In the painting shown here, an African village with mud houses and thatched gable roofs conveys the idea of a peaceful and simple life. The lush green of the palm trees contrasts with the warm, earthy colors of the sand and the dark skins of the women seated in front of their food baskets. In the foreground, a peasant woman of elegant bearing leads the deer. This painting can be related to the interest of Western artists at the beginning of the 20th century in delving into so-called "exotic" or "primitive" cultures, from Gauguin to Picasso. Isbrand avoids superficial exoticism. What he seeks and achieves is to capture the essence of the people he visits. He moves away from the chromatic stridencies, betting instead on subdued colors and synthetic, essentialist strokes, which will lead him to flirt with cubism in some works.

Danish painter. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Conpenhague, between 1930 and 1967 Victor Isbrand taught drawing at the School of Applied Arts in Copenhagen. His language is inspired by Cezanne and the cubist movement. From 1916 to 1987, his works were exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts: Kunsthal Charlottenborg. Works by him are kept at the KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg and the Nuuk Art Museum.