Lot 25: Ragnhild Keyser (Norwegian, 1889-1943)

Komposition (Composition)
signed and indistinctly inscribed 'Ragnhild Keyser/.....' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
31 x 16 in. (78.8 x 38 cm.)

Like many of the Nordic countries in the 1920s and 30s, Norway experienced a distict change in character within artistic circles. With the direct influence of their studies in France and Germany, many Norwegian artists began to experience the power of the emerging contemporary movements that would have a profound effect upon their art. As many of them moved to Paris to study under Fernand Léger, it is clear that the French artist had a clear impact upon the rise of abstract painting among the young Norwegians. Ragnhild Keyser was among those emerging artists that established herself at the time. Studying under Léger at the Academie Moderne, Keyser could learn not only from Léger himself, but from her fellow students while at the same time develop her own style that would become so highly-esteemed in the following years.

This present work, Composition, is a fine example of the artist's work from her most influential period. This still-life shows her use of subtle colours and tonal shading that were to become her trademark attributes and so representative of her seminal period in Paris in the 1920s.

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