Provenance: Danish private collection. After graduating at the Academy in Stockholm in 1902, Karl Isakson went to Italy where his artistic career developed at a rapid rate. Seeing the contemporary French art in 1905–1906 and later in 1910 meant a strengthening of his wish to obtain a colouristic light and a colour harmony in his paintings. During his entire life, Isakson was marked by physical disabilities and a hypersensitive mind. He entrenched himself in his studio and experimented with his artistic means, without considering the chances of selling his paintings or whether or not he would be acknowledged for his work. He began using pure spectral colours for cogent and well composed compositions, as in his paintings of models like the painting offered here - with complementary colour contrasts, cubist elements and a spontaneity and a sensitivity in the creation process.