Provenance: The artist's sister, Margit Keyser, married name Paus. Thence by descent in the family. Provenance: Private collection, Denmark. Acquired from the above in 2012. A copy of the provenance documentation is enclosed.

Ragnhild Keyser is today considered a significant part of the story of 20th century Norwegian art. She has strong ties to the art scene in Paris where, during the 1920s, she receives inspiration and tuition from André Lhote and Fernand Léger, among others, at the Académie Moderne from 1924–25. Keyser is interested in Cubism from early on, but gradually moved towards a clearer, flat geometric expression. Her paintings from the mid-20s are often dominated by a muted grey scale with a few bright pops of colour and a play with clearly defined shapes. Fragments of everyday objects, figures, interiors or architectural structures is subjected to a thorough process of abstraction and form part of a concrete surface composition. After participating in the much-maligned “Eight Scandinavian Cubists” exhibition, where Scandinavian Cubism is presented to the public at Kunstnerforbundet in 1927, Keyser adopts a more figurative expression. In the double portrait of Ragnhild Keyser and her sister Margit, offered here at auction, the artist has not yet completely moved away from figuration. Painted in a muted palette, two women are depicted in profile and en face, both with red lips, rosy cheeks and beautifully styled hair. Similar, but not alike - together, but still at distance - the two sisters seem isolated in their own thoughts, and the composition thus gives the illusion of a kind of mirror with several layers of displacements. The lines are clean and clear, and the women’s necks are elongated to enhance the subdued and simple geometry of the background.