Ludvig Karsten
Ludvig Karsten (1876-1926) was a Norwegian painter born in Christiania. He died in Paris.
Training, Munch and the power of colour
His full name was Ludvig Peter Karsten. He attended the Drawing School and studied in Munich, also developing through travel and artistic encounters. Contact with Edvard Munch in Åsgårdstrand from 1901 was crucial. French painting later brought new impulses. Contrasts such as red and green could carry both light and expression.
An evolving artistic career
Karsten attended Matisse's academy in 1910 and increasingly worked in Denmark. In 1920 he bought a house in Skagen, renewing his landscape painting. He also returned to older masters through painterly interpretations, or paraphrases, rather than straightforward transcriptions of their pictures.
More than one manner of painting
His work includes portraits, interiors, still lifes, nudes and landscapes. MUNCH highlights free, energetic brushwork and continual stylistic change. This range makes it necessary to compare a possible work with the relevant period and subject group rather than a single celebrated painting.
Det blå kjøkken
Det blå kjøkken, dated 1913, is oil on canvas, 53 × 68 cm, in the National Museum. The museum places its making in Copenhagen. The subject explores subdued morning light giving simple objects by a window form and colour. Backlighting provides a concrete basis for his colour relationships.
Det røde kjøkken and Tæring
Det røde kjøkken is catalogued as oil on canvas, 59 × 76.8 cm. The National Museum dates it probably to 1913. That qualification should be retained even where older accounts give the year without reservation.
Tæring represents another subject group and a larger format: 167 × 110 cm. The National Museum records oil on canvas, probably 1907. The entry provides firm references for material and dimensions while explicitly qualifying the date.
Paint surface and later interventions
A possible Karsten painting should be examined as both an image and a physical object. Look at the relationships between colours, areas where the support shows through and whether different passages belong to the same working process. Uneven thickness or open brushwork does not itself establish authorship. Raking-light photographs can reveal the surface but do not replace close examination.
Distinguish original reworking from possible later retouching. Known restoration, restretching, applied backing or changes in format should accompany the object. A photograph of the reverse and legible images of labels can be as useful for provenance research as an attractive view of the front.
Original, paraphrase or reproduction
Where a subject repeats an older work, investigate who made this particular object. The term copy does not itself distinguish a documented artistic interpretation from a later imitation. A print after a Karsten subject should be described as a reproduction; a name reproduced within the image is not a handwritten signature. Keep documented identity, possible attribution and unknown authorship clearly separate.
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