(Bundle of Flowers)

Siri Elsie Magnus Lagercrantz

Noted woodcut Swedish artist, illustrator, and designer Siri Magnus Lagercrantz was one of Sweden’s leading Modernist printmakers and a member of the Original Woodcut Association, and was also a sought-after book illustrator. Though she had mostly faded into obscurity after World War II, her work has seen a revival of interest in the later 20th and early 21st century as the work of otherwise forgotten women artists began to re-emerge.

Here, a simple nosegay of poppies and other flora takes center stage within a small bordered format. Measuring just under six by five inches, Lagercrantz nevertheless coaxes a complex composition from the block with intertwined leaves and hanging buds or berries, yet the lines are never overly delicate, her style sure and elegant.

From the collection of the Danish writer, critic, and collector, Georg Frederik Brøchner (1847-1933). Brøchner wrote many articles for The Studio and The International Studio.