Vision I

Agnes Cleve’s artistic legacy is one of being a pioneering female modernist, due in large part to her forceful, expressive painting style. Born in Sweden in 1876, Cleve moved to Paris in 1913 and studied under Le Fauconnier, one of the Montparnasse Cubists. Cleve and her husband Johan Jonand moved back to Sweden in 1915, where their summer home became a meeting place for other European Modernists, including Wassily Kandinsky. The influence of Kandinsky and other Der Blaue Reiter artists including Franz Marc can be seen in the expressive use of color by Cleve in Vision I. Cleve’s artistic output in 1915, the year Vision I was painted, shows an artist synthesizing the varying modernist styles being pioneered across early 20th century Europe, yet producing work distinctly her own.