Robert Leepin

ROBERT LEEPIN (Denmark, 1885-1967).
"Interior with woman", ca. 1930.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Frame by Freese and Sons, Copenhagen.
Measurements: 90 x 73 cm.

This painting by Robert Leepin is an oil painting of remarkable sensitivity and expressive mastery, in which the artist approaches the female nude with an introspective and nuanced look. The figure depicted, seated and folded in on herself, seems immersed in an atmosphere of meditation and contemplation. The body, outlined with broad, textured brushstrokes, blends with the surroundings in a palette that alternates greens, ochers and flesh tones, generating a sensation of organic unity between figure and background.

The use of color is especially significant: greens and blues, unconventional for human skin, suggest a poetic transfiguration of the body, beyond naturalism, in an expressionist and fauve direction. The light bathes the torso and limbs of the young woman with an almost sculptural quality, accentuating volumes and muscular tensions, but also suggesting moods. The closed posture, with her arms above her head, conveys a feeling of introspection or vulnerability. The artist breaks down the form to explore the emotionality of the human body, but without neglecting the sensuality that emanates from it.

Robert Leepin first studied with Lauritz Tuxen and Viggo Johansen at the Royal Danish Academy of Art (1909-1914). From 1921, Leepin made study trips abroad, among others to Moscow (1921), France (1923-1926), Italy (1924, 1930), Algiers (1927-1928) and Norway (1950). Leepin's work is a clear testimony to the influence exerted on him by early Danish modernism, derived from his experience working with the first generation of the School of Paris. Throughout his long and successful career, Robert Leepin exhibited on numerous occasions, including at the Paris Salon d'Automne (1924), in Malmö (1914) and, on a regular basis, at the Charlottenborg Museum from 1930 onwards. Robert Leepin's works are in private and public collections, including the permanent collections of Denmark's state museums.