Sunshine in an Interior

Peter Ilsted, 1920

Download3084 × 3400 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Peter Ilsted (Danish, 1861–1933)
Medium: Mezzotint
Size: Sheet: 59.2 x 49.4 cm (23 5/16 x 19 7/16 in.); Platemark: 40.9 x 38 cm (16 1/8 x 14 15/16 in.)
Culture: Denmark
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Peter Vilhelm Ilsted was one of only a few artists of his time to take up mezzotint, the printmaking technique used here. The process involved a tonal reversal—with the artist working from dark to light—that allowed Ilsted to render evocative and moody interiors. Like this print, most of his works were inhabited by young women seen from behind or in profile and involved in introspection or study. The subject of this work appears in darkness at the far side of the image, just beyond a patch of dramatic sunlight that enters the space and perhaps suggests her distance from the outside world.