Franciska Clausen's story is similar to that of many of her female colleagues; celebrated and recognized abroad, but for many years excluded from the finer artistic company after returning to Denmark. From a very young age she pursued her obvious talent with an education in Berlin and Munich – she was taught by and worked for icons of art history including Hans Hoffmann, Laslzo Moholy-Nagy and Alexander Archipenko – and briefly at the Royal Danish Art Academy in Copenhagen. Her studies continued in Paris, where in 1924 she received tuition at Léger’s Académie Moderne – and was even described as one of his best students.

She was part of the international avant-garde of the time and in 1929 became a member of the Cercle et Carré, where she exhibited with, among others, Mondrian and Jean Arp. Her illustrious career is interrupted, when in 1931, she has to return to her childhood home. In Denmark, no one understands her abstract artistic experiments, and with her internationally oriented outlook, she falls between two chairs in Copenhagen's closed-off environment. This exclusion is depicted in the work from 1932 entitled “The Country of the Cold Shoulders”. Clausen lives a somewhat isolated life in Aabenraa until her death, when her art was finally “rediscovered”.

In recent years, we have experienced great interest in her gouaches – and oil paintings, when on rare occasions they are offered for sale. The auction here features a nice little gouache from her time in Paris. The composition is tightly and rhythmically built up around a series of coloured squares, surrounded by distinct black strokes. On closer inspection, however, the abstraction is not pervasive, as Clausen has sought inspiration in the world of music. Thus, some of the organic lines can be recognized as the back of a cello – or perhaps a balalaika and a music stand?

In 1984, Randers Museum of Art shows a retrospective exhibition of her works, and after her death, most of her works are transferred to Trapholt – Museum of Modern Art, Craft and Design. More recently, Clausen has been exhibited at Gammel Strand in 2018 and is currently topical with her peers Fernand Léger and Gösta Adrian-Nilsson at “Mécanique Moderne” at Gammel Holtegaard until January 2022.