Luncheon on the Grass

Greed can also be life-affirming. Especially when it concerns joyously lustful desire. A naked female figure, voluptuous in every sense of the word, reclines in a landscape. Her head raised, she looks out towards the spectator and twoseated, fully dressed men. They are having a picnic. In front of the woman her breasts rest like two independent orbs staring out at the spectator. Undoubtedly the scene is also intended to be humorous, but it would seem that Lundstrøm had a personal penchant for curvaceous women. The artist Axel Salto tells us so: "Grotesque harridans with gargantuan, jutting hair pieces, with bulging stomachs and tiny legs, a nightmare to the eyes of any lover of women. Lundstrøm found them delightful." The painting hails from Lundstrøm's so-called "curly" period from 1919 to 1923. Infused with a not entirely straight claim to Expressionism, the works have a dual nature that deliberately pokes fun of the personal brushwork of Expressionism.