Lotte Laserstein

In some of her large-scale figure compositions, such as the portrait of the Voghera brothers from 1940 or the mural in Stenvik that she created as a private commission the same year (see image 129), one can clearly discern Lotte Laserstein's progression towards a decorative realism. Even her sketches for the mural in a Stockholm girls' school (see image 130), which she executed in 1939 as part of a competition, are characterized by the contemporary style with its flowing lines. For the gables of the auditorium, the artist planned two paintings depicting a waterfront promenade where young girls walk, converse with each other, or daydream. These sketches were never realized; the commission instead went to Bo Beskow's mural titled "Kaos Kosmos" in an expressive realism. In comparison to the bright lightness of Laserstein's competition proposal, which was imbued with the Swedish national colors of blue and yellow, her study "Three Reading Girls" from the same year (see image 131), which has also been exhibited several times under the title "Proposal for a Mural," appears relatively serious, even somewhat melancholic. It can hardly be linked to the lighthearted and bright scenes for the girls' school. It is therefore reasonable to assume that this is a study for a mural that is no longer preserved for the former Norra Kommunala Mellanskolan. Anna-Carola Krausse, "Lotte Laserstein - Meine einzige Wirklichkeit", Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2022, p. 168.