Born in Iceland in 1917, Louisa Matthíasdóttir studied art in Paris and Copenhagen before moving to New York City in 1942 to study with Hans Hoffman. Her fellow students, Nell Blaine and Jane Freilicher, introduced her to the artist Leland Bell (1922–1991), whom she married in 1944. Bell and Matthíasdóttir were passionately committed to depicting the figure, and they advocated the importance of abstraction in painting from life. Interior with Leland, which Matthíasdóttir painted in her early New York years, reflects elements of Hoffman’s “push pull” theory that color and form could create a sense of space and movement within a picture plane in much the same manner as traditional, linear perspective.

Matthíasdóttir’s bright colors and clear forms reflected her Icelandic heritage. As she noted, “the color is very bright in the north. They paint bright paintings to overcome the dark.”