A large, inventive, and whimsical oil painting featuring a nude goddess disguised within a snow covered mountain landscape. Signed by the well-listed artist Sigurd Skou, verso is titled “Hills in Norway.” Skou was born in Norway and studied with Anders Zorn in Stockholm and Paris. Throughout his career he traveled extensively and truly lived the artist’s life staying active in bohemian circles in New York, France and Chicago.

After moving to New York in 1916, Skou founded the Grand Central Art Galleries and began exhibiting at the National Academy of Design, The National Arts Club and was represented by the most prestigious gallery of its time, The Milch Galleries. He won numerous awards including the Allied Artists of America gold medal and the Salamungundi Club’s Foster Prize. A large example of the artist’s work housed in a handsome wide profile wood carved gold frame that appears original to the painting.

Other associations of this artist include the Boston Arts Club, Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Aquarellists of America, American Federation of Arts, National Arts Club and the American Art Association of Paris. He exhibited at the Whitney Museum in 1929 and the National Academy of Design in 1925. Vesterheim, the Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa holds three of his paintings. He died in Paris in 1928 of a heart attack.