Sigrid Hjertén was among the artists who introduced modernism into Swedish painting. Together with her husband, Isaac Grünewald, she belonged to the first generation of the Swedish avant-garde active in Paris. Hjertén began her studies at the Higher School of Industrial Art (Högre konstindustriella skolan) in Stockholm, intending to become an applied artist specializing in designs for woven tapestries and carpets. In 1909 she exhibited her textile works at the Stockholm Exhibition; shortly thereafter, however, she turned her focus entirely to painting. In this work, Hjertén depicts a woman seated casually on a bench, surrounded by luxuriant vegetation. It is possible that the sitter is Isaac’s younger sister Bertha, who often accompanied the family on their travels to assist with their son Iván. The garden space is enclosed by a fence visible in the background, and the garden furniture is rendered in a turquoise hue that dominates the foreground and recurs in the abundant plant life, which shifts into green and yellow tonalities. The pale lilac ground resonates across the different pictorial planes of the composition. Together with the woman’s shirt in a vivid orange set against a blue shawl, complemented by a soot-black skirt, this unusual color combination demands exceptional sensitivity to achieve such a successful result. The painting stands as an outstanding example of Hjertén’s bold and expressive use of color.

Hedvig Skarstedt shared her interest in Skagen’s beaches and its intense light with, among others, Anna Palm and Julia Strömberg. Like Skarstedt, the latter came from Lund and, together with Oscar Björck, Wilhelm von Gegerfelt, Johan Krouthén, Palm, and several others, belonged to the group of Swedish artists who joined the Skagen artists’ colony during the 1880s. Skarstedt embraced the fresh approach to landscape painting represented by the Skagen painters and frequently depicted coastal landscapes and built environments in a smaller format. Motifs from Skagen, Scania, and Bornholm recur throughout her oeuvre. The present painting depicts a view from Skagen, and there is no doubt as to the location: the yellow-painted houses with red roofs characteristic of Gammel Skagen are clearly silhouetted against the bright sky. Here, Skarstedt works with complementary color pairs—red and green, blue and orange—in a restrained register, allowing their effects to unfold subtly. Skagen was renowned for its strong and shifting light, which, in combination with the coastal landscape and expansive beaches, created striking vistas that both attracted and challenged Nordic artists. In this work, Skarstedt demonstrates her assured command of the challenges inherent in plein-air painting.