color mezzotint
1913
19 1/4 x 16
signed in pencil
Interior with a red shawl conveys a quite different mood and feeling: one of calm, and suspension of time. Here the suggestion is that the woman is waiting for something to happen, though we are given no inkling of what that might be. She could be waiting for someone on the other side of the door, or for someone to emerge from a different place entirely. Or she could simply enjoy that particular spot by the window for reading. It is amazing to me how much of a shift is depicted in the artist's renderings of women in the same interiors
Ilsted was to become widely known for his interior scenes. Using the interior of his home and members of his family as sitters, Ilsted’s subjects would be scenes set in the kitchen preparing food, or in a dining room or drawing room with or without figures, but always with an emphasis on light and its interplay on surfaces.
Ilsted begun working with the mezzotint printmaking process in 1906, when this technique was relatively uncommon in Denmark. He spent time studying and collecting English mezzotints,and “often printed his mezzotints in colour à la poupée, a technique that involves inking different areas on the plate by hand with a bundle of fabric, which allows for the use of several colours. This is a painstaking process, as the colours must be kept from mixing, and it has to be repeated for each run under the press. These truly singular coloured prints were highly sought after in his day.”
What I enjoy in these prints is the feeling they generate of having just walked into the scene at a moment of transition. They depict a pause in time, just before things change, and this creates a certain quality of anticipation and excitement. Despite their stillness, these images have a dynamic quality to them, and through them I feel drawn into the everyday workings of the Ilsted household.
