30/09/2026
'La Promenade Dangereuse', een olieverfschilderij uit 1936 van de Deense surrealistische kunstenares Rita Kernn-Larsen (1904 - 1998).
Een uitspraak van haar vier jaar later:
"Out of the mist of the thirties emerged a new spirit - like the breath of a dragon it invaded me.”
Het Centraal Museum in Utrecht kocht onlangs surrealistisch werk van haar aan dat bij toeval in het programma 'Kunst en Kitsch' was ontdekt.
Rita Kernn-Larsen werd geboren in een welgesteld gezin in Hillerød en bezocht daar een particuliere school. Ze begon al op jonge leeftijd met schilderen en na een tijd in Oslo, Noorwegen te hebben doorgebracht, ging ze naar de Koninklijke Deense Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Kopenhagen om haar vaardigheden te verfijnen, maar vond het onderwijs daar te traditioneel. Daarom verhuisde ze naar Parijs en sloot zich aan bij de academie van Fernand Léger, waar ze tot 1933 onder zijn leiding studeerde. Daarna keerde ze terug naar Denemarken en opende haar eigen atelier.
Gedurende de jaren dertig ontwikkelde haar stijl zich van een meer decoratieve stijl naar het surrealisme. Als een van de weinige vrouwelijke surrealistische kunstenaars bezocht ze regelmatig tentoonstellingen, waaronder de Internationale Surrealistische Tentoonstelling van Londen in 1936. In 1937 verhuisde Kernn-Larsen terug naar Parijs en ontmoette Peggy Guggenheim, die het jaar daarop een solotentoonstelling voor haar opende in Londen. Ze bleef gedurende de oorlogsjaren in Londen met haar echtgenoot, de Joodse kunsthandelaar Isak Grünberg. In die tijd nam ze afstand van het surrealisme en richtte ze zich tijdens de oorlog op een meer realistische benadering van haar schilderijen. Het echtpaar kreeg in 1940 in Londen een dochter, Danielle Grünberg, die een bekende anti-kernenergie- en milieuactiviste zou worden.
Na de oorlog verhuisde Rita Kernn-Larsen naar Saint-Jeannet in de Alpes-Maritimes, Frankrijk, waar ze het Zuid-Franse landschap als motief gebruikte voor haar latere schilderijen. Ze woonde daar van 1947 tot 1992 en werkte er onder andere met keramiek.
Rita Kernn-Larsen (Danish painter) 1904 - 1998
La Promenade Dangereuse, 1936
oil on canvas
25 x 53.4 cm. (9.88 x 21 in.)
signed with the artist's initials 'rk.l' (lower right)
inscribed 'la promenade dangereuse. 25 x 53 cm. (on the reverse)
signed 'Rita Kernn-Larsen' (on the stretcher)
private collection
© photo Christie's
Catalogue Note Christie's
"Out of the mist of the thirties emerged a new spirit - like the breath of a dragon it invaded me.”
- Rita Kerrn-Larsen, 1940
The little-known Surrealist artist Rita Kerrn-Larsen was born in Denmark in 1904. After a period of study in The Academy of Arts in Copenhagen, she moved to Paris in 1929, where she became the pupil of Fernand Léger. Impeccably connected within the exciting ferment of pre-war Paris, Kerrn-Larsen and her husband, art dealer and journalist Isaac Grünberg, moved in the most exciting and experimental avant-garde circles. From 1935, her prominence within the Surrealist group was established and she exhibited widely in key group exhibitions throughout Europe, including the ‘International Surrealist Exhibition’ in London in 1936 and the legendary, scandalising ‘Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme’ in Paris in 1938, where her work ‘Self Portrait Know Thyself’ was exhibited alongside Salvador Dalí’s iconic work Lobster Telephone.
In 1937 Kerrn-Larsen was introduced to iconic collector and gallerist Peggy Guggenheim, and in 1938 was awarded a solo exhibition in her fledging London gallery Guggenheim Jeune on Cork Street, entitled ‘Exhibition of Surrealist Paintings by Rita Kerrn-Larsen’. At the opening of the exhibition, the artist wore a surrealist-style hat complete with little bells and porridge oats, which fluttered down as she moved.
The work ‘La promenade dangereuse’ offered in this sale (Lot 56) was included in the Guggenheim Jeune exhibition. The work, painted in 1936, is an example of the artist at the height of her surrealist powers. The work presents arresting juxtapositions of abstract, disjointed figures in a dreamlike, deserted landscape. The motif of woman as flower or plant, visible in the figure’s tendril-like arms, and the use of the profile of the face, are oft-repeated motifs in the artist’s works of this period. The work also clearly shows the influence of Cubist artists such as Picasso and her former teacher Léger, especially in the composition in the figures. The artist has acknowledged that it was during this time of intense intellectual and imaginative experimentation that some of her best works were executed, as she commented “the Surrealist period was wonderful. Yes…it really was the best time for me as an artist.” (Rita Kerrn-Larsen, 1967).
Kerrn-Larsen’s position as a female artist in the largely male Surrealist movement give her works a unique importance for a study of the period. Although depictions of Woman (as muse, as queen, as sorceress) are often central to Surrealist works, Kerrn-Larsen’s works represent an alternative perspective which includes the psychological and imaginative processes of the Woman as Artist. As art historian Whitney Chadwick has noted, the efforts of female artists in the group were thus crucial to the expansion of the Surrealist scope, as she writes, ‘it became the first modernist movement in which a group of women could explore female subjectivity and give form (however tentatively) to a feminine imaginary." (Women artists and the Surrealist Movement, 1985) As such, Kerrn-Larsen’s work, often overlooked in the traditional narratives and accounts of the period, are an indispensable part of continuing studies into Surrealism.
Kerrn-Larsen’s works are today housed in collections internationally, including in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, among others.
* * *
Rita Kernn-Larsen was a Danish surrealist painter. She was born to a wealthy family in Hillerød, and attended the private Marie Mørks School there. She began to paint at a young age, and after spending time abroad in Oslo, Norway, she attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts to fine-tune her craft, but found the teachings there to be too traditional. Instead, she moved to Paris and joined Fernand Léger's academy, studying under him until 1933, when she returned to Denmark and opened up her own studio.
Throughout the 1930s, Kernn-Larsen's style moved from a more decorative style to surrealism. She regularly attended exhibitions as one of the only female surreal artists, including the London International Surrealist Exhibition in 1936. In 1937, Kernn-Larsen moved back to Paris and met Peggy Guggenheim, who opened a solo exhibition for her the following year in London.[2] She remained in London throughout the war years with her husband, Jewish art dealer Isak Grünberg. At that time she departed from surrealism, focusing on a more real approach to her paintings during the war.
After the war, Kernn-Larsen moved to Saint-Jeannet, Alpes-Maritimes, France, using the Southern French landscape as a motif for her later paintings. She lived there from 1947 to 1992, and while there worked with ceramics, and published a children's book, The Golden Village. She continued to attend exhibitions primarily in Denmark, with her last one being a retrospective in 1995 at Randers Art Museum.
Source: Wikipedia
