Isaac Grünewald – Det sjungande trädet

*Modern Art + Design presents

Isaac Grünewald, "Det sjungande trädet"

”"The Singing Tree" is one of, if not the most essential, work in Isaac Grünewald's artistic output. During his stay in Paris in the early 20th century, he interacted with the leading artists of modern art, such as Cézanne, Chagall and, above all, Matisse. These encounters were an enormously powerful experience and inspiration for him. He felt he was "facing something completely new and reckless in its unbridled freedom.”

”"These theses are overwhelmingly illustrated in Grünewald's perhaps most celebrated painting, The Singing Tree, 1915. It is a view of the Bern Salons in central Stockholm, but the subject is only interesting as a background to the dominant 'singing tree'. The smoothly curving tree, with a blue trunk and a voluptuous red and pink crown, is surrounded at its root by a walkway in the same shades of red. /.../ At the tree's root are yellows and greens - all according to the scheme of complementary colours and cool and warm tones. And then the movement! It's not just the tree dancing, but the whole park seems to be spinning like a merry-go-round - a feeling reinforced by the small pavilion and large parasol in the background, as well as the mother and child pulling in opposite directions. Here, Isaac Grünewald has created a remarkable dynamic in which colour and form interact - here, he has achieved 'l'Extase'.

The painting is a triumph of Grünewald's own style - here far removed from the inspirations of Cézanne and even, to some extent, Matisse. If you want to see any kinship with any other contemporary painter, your mind goes to Marc Chagall. In many of his works, there is the same intensity of colour, the same movement of the image and the same 'primitive' simplification." Per I. Gedin, "Isaac Grünewald - modernist and human being", Albert Bonniers Publishers, 2015, pp 192-194.

The watercolour in the auction is a study of the painting of the same name, which is part of the Norrköping Art Museum's collection.