Fish and Blue Pot – Anna-Stina Nilstoft – ca. 1960s

In this expressive still life, Anna-Stina Lorentze Nilstoft reduces everyday objects to simple shapes and balanced blocks of color. The canvas is typical of Swedish post-war painting, in which the still life became open ground for simplification and colour experiment. Thin, matte layers of paint allow the linen weave to show through, lending the surface a soft, powdery quality. The muted pastels are interrupted by the deep green of the cloth and the cool blue of the pot, so the whole feels calm without becoming flat. The painting is signed lower left. 

About the artist

Anna-Stina Lorentze Nilstoft (1928–2017) was a Swedish painter. She studied at the Skåne School of Painting in Malmö from 1952 to 1954 and at Marie Wadskjær's School of Painting in Copenhagen from 1955 to 1958, as well as through self-study during trips to France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, among other places. In 1957 she participated in an exhibition at Kalmar County Museum where various Kalmar artists were invited to show local art. Together with Birgit Krafft-Wæsterberg and Bror Strid, she exhibited at Gamleby folk high school in 1958 and separately she exhibited in Västervik, among other places. Her art consists of interiors, still lifes and figures executed in oil. Nilstoft is buried in the memorial grove at Höganäs cemetery.