Victor Isbrand

'Still Life with Imari Bowl', Paris, Japanese Woodblock, Post-Impressionist Oil

Circa 1945

Precocious as a child, Victor Isbrand painted seriously from a young age and was invited to exhibit at the 1915 Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition two years before graduating from the Copenhagen Academy of Fine Arts. Throughout a long career, he was the recipient of numerous prestigious national scholarships and stipends including the Ronge (1917), the Charlottenborg Art Academy (1919–20) and the State Art Foundation Scholarship (1978–88). Isbrand exhibited widely and with success, including annually at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, where he exhibited continuously for over 70 years. He was also the recipient of numerous medals, prizes and juried awards including the 1919 Charlottenberg gold medal for Aphrodite and Eros. Initially influenced by Cubism, Isbrand traveled abroad to Java and the East, exploring Primitivism and Orientalism as his style developed. He also visited and painted in Siam, Malacca, China, Japan, Paris, Greenland and Southern Europe before accepting a teaching post at the School of Applied Arts in Copenhagen where his theories influenced an entire generation of Danish Modernists. Victor Isbrand's works are held in private and public collections including the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, Denmark