‘Portrait of the Artist, Victor Isbrand’ by Oda Lauritsen Isbrand, 1928, Paris, Copenhagen, Morocco

Signed upper right, ‘Oda Lauritsen’ for Oda Lauritsen Isbrand (Danish, 1904-1987) and dated, upper left, ‘1928’.

A powerful oil portrait of the artist’s husband-to-be, the notable Danish Modernist, Victor Isbrand (1897-1989), painted when he was thirty-one and Oda was twenty-four. She portrays him centered in the composition and directing his clear and penetrating gaze toward the viewer. He is shown wearing a red cotton djellaba, traditional casual dress in Morocco, which he is known to have visited on painting trips in the late 1920’s. Oda painted this portrait of Victor three years before their marriage in 1931.