Provenance: Florent Welles. Acquired directly from the artist. Provenance: Sotheby's, sale 480, 21 March 1988, Amsterdam, lot. no. 413. Acquired by the present owner. Provenance: Private Collection, The Netherlands.

From the end of 1947 and up through 1948, Karel Appel establishes an independent idiom of colour and form, which reaches its peak in a cheerful painting called ”Frihedens Råb” (The Cry of Freedom) (Willemijn Stokvis: “COBRA Spontanitetens veje” (The Roads of Spontaneity), Amsterdam, 2001, p. 342) The image was painted at the time when the Experimental Groep and CoBrA were founded, and thus radiates a jubilant sense of victory and liberation. A contact between like-minded people is created across national borders, and the world lies open after the horrors of war, which is expressed in a feeling of artistic freedom and security. The image offered here is also from 1948 and in many ways comparable to ”Frihedens Råb” (The Cry of Freedom), both in choice of colours, mood and composition. The figure approaches pure abstraction, only faintly recognizable on the surface, which is divided into sharply drawn and small areas kept in bright blue, green, yellow and orange colours. Appel's choice of imagery is still free of large-mouthed, all-consuming creatures; after the encounter with the work of the Danes at the end of 1948, Appel lets go of the constricting reins that have thus far kept his imagination in check, and childish, good-natured creatures are evoked on the canvas and in the viewer's imagination.