Toon Kelder artwork • painting • previously for sale Reclining nude

'Reclining nude' is painted so lightly and thinly that it seems to 'evaporate'. Kelder painted the work in the 'blurry' style that he developed from 1930. Before that he lived in Bergen for three years, where he worked in the expressionist touch, characteristic of the Bergen School. In the painting shown here, it seems as if he was inspired by Symbolism. The diffuse female figure is absorbed in vague shapes and soft colours. His nude portraits, for which his wife Alexandrine usually poses, are characterized by an emphasis on female forms. These shapes are more important to Kelder than the facial expression of the model: the pronounced curves symbolize the sensual female figure. With this work he is very successful, both with critics and with the public.