A captivating early 20th-century rural scene depicting two children playing before an old ramshackle farmhouse. It’s an everyday moment captured with affection - so perhaps the artist knew the family.

Axel Johansen (1872-1938) was a great colourist and the palette here is crisp and interesting. Note how the girls are deliberately quite distinct against their background, thus providing an immediate focal point.

Johansen studied at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen and several of his works are held in museum collections.

The painting is signed/dated in the lower left and housed within a gilt frame.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 27” x 28” / 69cm x 71cm
Year of creation: 1923
Provenance: Denmark
Condition: Very presentable following a light restoration. Canvas relined. Frame with various signs of age including surface losses.
Artist’s auction highlight: £7,000 achieved at Christie’s in 1993 for ‘The Race’.