VICTOR ISBRAND (1897 - 1989 )

Victor Isbrand graduated in 1917 at the age of 20 from the Art Academy, but had started exhibiting his works 2 years prior, of which some of his earlier works displayed sharp cubist forms.His works developed throughout the period between WWI and WWII, and he won a gold medal for his masterpiece,  Aphrodite and Eros, in 1919, and which displayed both influences from modernism and the studies of the human form during the Rennaisance. Isbrand then used his early success to travel abroad with EAC ships and trains to the East, where he stayed in Java, near the temple of Borobudur, which inspired many young artists in search of a lost simplicity in life and art. In Java Isbrand found both landscape and figurative motifs which he used for several years after his return, moving towards a more realistic style of painting. This style continued during his time in Paris in the 1920’s. A major work from these years is of the Croquisskole in Paris, where he has captured the colorful, international crowding in one of the metropolis art schools in an accurate, easily caricatured expression. Isbrand traveled a lot, and in 1930 he found in northern Greenland a new design world, who has long inspired the clear, light-filled images of nature as well as of the population and its activities.

In 1930 Isbrand relocated to Ramløse near Arresø, and over the years painted a series of landscapes from here. For 37 years, Isbrand was highly appreciated as a teacher, and his time  dedicated to his own work was somewhat limited, but he did, nevertheless, a number of character portraits and a series of cityscapes and still lifes, often to the summer residence in southern Europe. The best of which is inspired, atmospheric and colorful works gradually moved away considerably from the interwar objectivity. Isbrand lived an unusually long, active artistic life. In 1987, 70-year anniversary of his debut at Charlotte's Spring Exhibition, he achieved to get into Guinness World Records for longest exhibition period.

More about the Ramlose exhibit can be read HERE.

You can also view a copy of his signature HERE.