Design challenge: Vilhelm Lundstrøm

Every so often, I find a lovely image and will try to design something around it. Most often, this is a book cover.

Today, I found this incredible work by a modernist Danish painter, Vilhelm Lundstrøm, entitled Portrait of Anny Nissen, the artist’s sister (1932).

I searched around for a book written within a few decades that would have a female protagonist and would match the ethos of the painting (which, to my eye, had a bit of restraint or repression). I eventually found Mrs. Bridge, a 1959 novel by Evan S. Connell about a Midwest housewife, told in 117 vignettes.

So many scenes gave me the idea of splitting the artwork somehow, making these slices of life visually literal. And because the novel is so focused on small moments, I liked the concept of zooming in on the painting, seeing hints of the woman but — like the novel — leaving the full picture only to implication.