Tableau ancien huile. Ludvig Kabell (1853-1902) : "L'île de l'imagination" populaire

ARTIST: LudvigKabell is a well-listed Danish artist, whose works have been offered atauctions multiple times, including famous auction houses such as Christie's,Dorotheum and Bruun Rasmussen. He was a popular exhibitor both internationally( f.ex. the World Fair in Chicago in 1893) and at Charlottenborg. He was taughtby famous Danish Golden Age artists P.C. Skovgaard and graduated from the RoyalAcademy of Art in Copenhagen. Kabell was very inspired by the Danish Golden Ageartists and French landscape artists and became a very skilled landscapepainter. He went on study trips to Paris, Italy and Austria. He also painted afew so-called paperboard-cards, which were the forerunners of the actualpostcards.

PAINTING:Oil on canvas. The painting is a colorful and idyllic rendering of a lake andan island known as “Fantasiens ø”/“The island of imagination”. Located inBreddam Sø in Northern Zealand near Frederiksborg Castle, the island was createdin 1859 by King Frederik the 7^{th , when he had a canal cut throughan inlet, thus separating the island from the mainland. On this island he had severalfountains, an artificial grotto and other things built, which gave it its' name“The island of imagination”. Today the ruins of the buildings can still beseen, and the island is annually visited by 30000-50000 people. The paintingdepicts a man rowing across the lake in a simple boat. In the foreground is a beautifullydetailed tree and in the background on the left, one can see a few houses and aflagpole. On the back of the canvas is information about the artist and on the backof the frame, there's an inscription which reads: “Signeret med monogram lidttil højre for midten I den nederste kant af lærredet med: LK”(Signed withmonogram a little to the right of the middle in the lowest part of the canvaswith: LK). This is of course interesting, because that means that thesignature, being in the lowest part of the canvas, is now concealed by theouter frame. I have not removed the inner frame to check, because everythingabout the painting indicates that Kabell is the artist. Substantial evidencefor that is also given by an old auction sticker from Bruun Rasmussen on the backof the frame. Furthermore the location of the scene in the painting is alsorevealed by another inscription saying “Fantasiens Øe”(The island ofimagination). I'll date the painting to somewhere between 1875-1885. (Probably)Signed: Monogram: “LK” in the lower part of the canvas.}

SIZE: Withframe: 37,5 cm/14.8" * 30 cm/11.8". Without frame: 25,5 cm/10" *18 cm/7.1".

CONDITION: The painting is ingreat ready-to-hang condition - no holes, tears or missing paint, but with somecraquelure. The frame has scratches and stains.