Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1541099
Peter Ilsted 1861-1933 Woman by window Signed 'Peter Ilsted' lower right and numbered '75/11' lower left Mezzotint 18 7 ⁄ 8 x 17 3 ⁄ 8 in, 48 x 44 cm Provenance Bruun Rasmussen, 6 August 2002 Connaught Brown, London Private Collection, UK Literature P. D. Olufsen and S. C. Svensson, Peter Ilsted, Denmark, no. 21 Born in Saxkobing, Ilsted's initial artistic training and practice were solidly conventional. His early success in Denmark was quickly matched by recognition of his talents at the Paris Salon. By the 1890s the traditionalism of his early career gave way to more contemporary subjects, possibly a result of his friendship with fellow painters Carl Holsøe and Vilhelm Hammershøi, who married his sister Ida in 1891. Alongside Holsøe and Hammershøi, Ilsted formed what amounted to a school of interior painting in Denmark at the turn of the century. All three artists had been members of The Free Exhibition, a progressive exhibiting society set up in 1890. Ilsted was the only member of the Copenhagen Interior School to love prints and printmaking and make them a primary means for artistic expression. He chose the medium of mezzotint in 1909. Created by scraping modulated tones from a densely roughened 'black' copperplate, mezzotint is ideal for replicating a painting style rich in chiaroscuro. No eighteenth-century professional printmaker or artist has employed the medium more aptly or more skilfully, especially in colour work. Ilsted found mezzotint perfect for applying the tonal nuances and luminous highlights of the calm and quiet scenes which became his key subject. 46