Literature: Guy Atkins: “Jorn in Scandinavia 1930–1953”, London, 1968, no. 228, ill. p. 341 and in colours fig. 53, p. 61. Literature: Erik Zahle (ed.): “Danmarks malerkunst: Fra Middelalder til nutid” (Danish Painting: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day), Copenhagen, 4th edition, 1956, ill. p. 327. Literature: “Fortegnelse over Skulptur. Maleri og Grafik tilhørende Erling Koefoed” (Inventory of Sculptures, Paintings and Graphics belonging to Erling Koefoed), Copenhagen, 1961, ill. p. 75. Literature: Troels Andersen: Asger Jorn. “En biografi Årene 1914–53” (A Biography. The Years 1914–53), Copenhagen, 1994, ill. in colours p. 79.

Exhibited: “Tre unge Malere”, his first retrospective, (with Frede Christoffersen and Knud Nielsen), Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, 1953, cat. no. 57. Exhibited: “Fortegnelse over et udvalg af skulptur - maleri og grafik tilhørende Erling Koefoed”, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, 1966, cat. no. 64, ill. in the catalogue p. 23. Exhibited: Louisiana, Museum for Moderne Kunst, Humlebæk, 1973.

Provenance: Freiherr Herbert Garvens von Garvensburg, Sandkås, Bornholm, Denmark. Provenance: Bruun Rasmussen Kunstauktioner, auction 66, Copenhagen, 1955, cat. no. 85. Provenance: Lawyer Erling Koefoed, Copenhagen. Thence by descent in the family.

The horse, or rather the “Hell Horse”, appeared during World War II as a cryptically ironic comment on the trail of death and destruction left by the Nazis’ advance in Europe. With the reference to Norse mythology and a seemingly innocent visual content, artists such as Vilhelm Lundstrøm, Hans Scherfig, Ejler Bille, Egill Jacobsen, Erik Thommesen, Henry Heerup, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Else Alfelt and Jorn were able to get away with setting up the “13 Artists in a Tent” exhibition. It was actually an exhibition in a circus tent, which, located at Bakken, an amusement park north of Copenhagen, had just enough of an air of amusement about it to escape the attention of the occupying power. The exhibition’s subtle criticism is reflected in the work up for auction: If you take a closer look at the visual content, the innocent, humorous content is quickly pushed into the background by figures with a more diabolical ambiguity: A horse head that looks more like a skull, and a rider falling off the horse. Once you notice these elements, the reference to Picasso’s Guernica, painted five years earlier, is striking. The horror of the Spanish Civil War, which Picasso depicted at the time, would, as we know, prove to be a grim forewarning of the incomprehensible, senseless suffering that awaited in the years that followed.