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[Documentation]
Catalogue of acquisitions: paintings, drawings and sculpture
August 1998-July 1999
This catalogue contains all paintings, drawings and sculpture acquired by the Van Gogh Museum from August 1998 to July 1999. Each work has an inventory number made up as follows: the first letter stands for the technique (s = painting, d = drawing, v = sculpture); this is followed by a reference number and then by a capital letter (B = loan, N = State of the Netherlands, S = Van Gogh Museum [after 1 July 1994], V = Vincent van Gogh Foundation) and the year of acquisition.
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Paintings
Böcklin, Arnold
Swiss, 1827-1901
Sleeping nymph spied on by two fauns 1884
Oil on panel, 70 × 90 cm
Signed at lower right: AB
s 491 S/1999
The Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin is known for his mystically-tinged work. Besides doom-laden paintings, he also created mythological scenes; often lighter in tone and less symbolically charged, these sometimes even express a certain humour.
In the second half of the 19th century, Böcklin gained a prominent position in artistic circles, especially in the German-speaking countries. His work appealed to many of his contemporaries, and also inspired painters of later generations. He was a leading exemplar, especially to the symbolists. His themes are drawn from the Dionysian world of Nietzsche, and tend towards the Teutonic grandiloquence of Richard Wagner. The painter was concerned less with a reiteration of the stories of antiquity than with such human fundamentals as solitude, erotic desire, happiness, angst and longing. It is not the Olympian gods who populate his paintings, but natural forces personified as nymphs, fauns, centaurs and naiads. At times bizarre and fantastical, his pictures can seem somewhat contrived. However, although characteristic, the Sleeping nymph, does not stray into the excesses and exaggerations of some of his other works.
Following a long period in Rome, Böcklin lived in Florence from 1874 to 1885. It was not unusual for German painters to reside in Italy, where they sought inspiration in the country's mythology, past, and unspoiled landscape. Böcklin was the most important of these so-called ‘Deutsch-Römer,’ whose exponents included Anselm Feuerbach, Hans von Marées, Franz von Lenbach and Adolf von Hildebrand. The international significance of these artists has recently become apparent: numerous symbolists, expressionists and surrealists were influenced by their work. We know from a passage in the diary of Böcklin's student and biographer Rudolf Schick that the canvas was painted in Florence in 1884. Schick also made a sketch after the work which on many occasions has been attributed to the master himself.
The painting depicts a sleeping water nymph being spied on by two fauns. Although it bears considerable resemblance to Böcklin's Sleeping Diana spied on by two fauns of 1877 (Düsseldorf, Kunstmuseum), the Van Gogh Museum's painting has far greater charm. Besides the Sleeping Diana, no other work in Böcklin's oeuvre is so clearly associated with this picture.
The canvas shows Böcklin at his best. Deliberately wide-ranging, the variety of style brings his artistic qualities to the fore. The hairy bodies of the fauns, the vegetation and the silvery tints of the water all provided the painter with an opportunity to revel in the rendering of texture. Depth is created by the detailed rocks and mosses in the foreground, and the sketchy plant cover in the background. The pale skin of the nymph and the brownish hides of the fauns - a fine contrast - contribute to the scene's spatiality.
Although the work is humorous, a certain empathy is created by the fauns' somewhat stupid facial expressions and their very goat-like limbs. Böcklin is said to have incorporated the features of the artist Franz von Lenbach, his former close friend, into one of the faces. Lenbach's meddling and backbiting had led to strains in the relationship, culminating in a break in August 1877.
The endearing scene also has a lightly ironic undertone. A not-so-subtle sexual allusion can be discerned in the gourd pointing towards the vessel from which the spring flows. But something strange is afoot: while fauns are traditionally known for their licentiousness, here their lust is very restrained. Although the nymph lies asleep - a condition ideally suited to being overpowered - they seem to be resigned to passive staring.
Böcklin's figures fill almost the whole canvas, creating an intimate mood which is only enhanced
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Arnold Böcklin
Sleeping nymph spied on by two fauns 1884
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by the chiaroscuro. Little is visible of the natural surroundings; nothing in the painting is reminiscent of the kind of classical Italian landscape that played such a pronounced role in the artist's other works. Tree species characteristic of Mediterranean regions, such as cypresses, are absent.
Like his contemporaries Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Paul Cézanne, Böcklin frequently based his work on that of Old Masters. Paintings of spied-on nymphs, or of Susanna and the elders, can be traced back to Titian, Rubens and Poussin in particular.
Provenance Baron von Heyking, Peking (given on permanent loan to the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, c. 1900); Kunsthandel Eduard Schulte, Berlin (1905); Kunsthandel J.P. Schneider Jr, Frankfurt am Main (1905); Kojiro Matsukata; private collection, Osaka (1960); Fujikawa Gallery, Tokyo (1972); Iwami Furusawa, Tokyo (1973); Jeffrey Deitch, New York; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt, with the help of the Prins Bernard Fonds (1999).
Literature Exhib. cat. A. Böcklin 1827-1901: Ausstellung zum 150. Geburtstag veranstaltet vom Magistrat der Stadt Darmstadt, Darmstadt (Mathildenhöhe) 1977, pp. 168-69; Rolf Andree, Arnold Böcklin: Die Gemälde, Basel & Munich 1977,
p. 456; exhib. cat. Arnold Böcklin, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst: Eine Reise ins Ungewisse, Zürich (Kunsthaus Zürich) München (Haus der Kunst München) & Berlin (Nationalgalerie) 1998, pp. 180, 438.
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Bonheur, Rosa
French, 1822-1899
La mare aux fées c. 1870
Oil on canvas, 31 × 38 cm
Signed at lower right (not by the artist): Rosa Bonheur
s 492 S/1999
Rosa Bonheur is best known for her realistic animal pieces, which were often painted in a large format. Intimate studies of nature, such as La mare aux fées, are fairly rare in her oeuvre. This study of a tree was painted in the forest of Fontainebleau, where the artist had withdrawn in 1860. She often drew or painted the trees and clearings she encountered on her many long walks through the woods. The site shown in this painting is known as ‘la mare aux fées,’ i.e. ‘the fairies' pool.’
The artist Henri Cain once wrote that it was impossible to persuade Rosa Bonheur to come to Paris if she was working on such a study. ‘I can't leave now,’ she would say, ‘the forest is too beautiful at the moment, flaming with magnificent foliage which is so soon to fade.’
Although the study features a number of trees, only one, that at the centre, has been finished in any detail. Bonheur devoted considerable attention to the play of light falling through the branches and illuminating the trunk.
Provenance Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1999).
Literature Exhib. cat. Nineteenth and early twentieth century drawings and oil sketches, London (Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox) 1998.
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Desboutin, Marcellin-Gilbert
French, 1823-1902
Self-portrait
Oil on canvas, 40.3 × 32.4 cm
Signed lower right: M. Desboutin
s 490 S/1999
Desboutin was the scion of an aristocratic family. After completing his studies in law, he decided in 1845 to take lessons at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He left the academy already in 1847, due to the uninspiring teaching of his academic master, Louis-Jules Etex. Between 1847 and 1849 Desboutin worked in the studio of Thomas Couture, another of whose students in the same period was Edouard Manet.
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Kees van Dongen
The blue dress 1911
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As a wealthy young man, Desboutin could devote himself to his passions: writing poetry and plays, and collecting art for his Florentine villa. Only after exhausting his fortune did he return to Paris in 1872, now ready to address the question of seriously applying himself to a career as a painter and engraver.
As someone who moved in impressionist circles, Desboutin posed twice for Degas. He made his name as a portraitist: Degas, Manet and Zola are numbered among his sitters. As well as painting a large number his contemporaries, known and unknown, he executed several self-portraits.
This work was probably painted when he was in his early 20s and working with Couture. The monotone palette is characteristic of his style. Because of the complete absence of artistic accoutrements, there is no indication of his profession as a painter. The spectator's attention is drawn primarily to the young man's face and his abundant head of hair.
Provenance Gaston Lévy; Private collection, USA; Galerie Partick Derom, Paris (1999); purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1999).
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Van Dongen, Kees
Dutch, 1877-1968
The blue dress 1911
Oil on canvas, 146 × 114 cm
Signed at lower right: Van Dongen
s 493 S/1999
Composed in simple, vividly-coloured planes, this portrait shows Van Dongen's wife, Augusta Preitinger (1878-1946). The couple had met at the art academy in Rotterdam in the 1880s, and had married in 1901. Head raised, hand on hip, Guus - as she was known - is shown in a challenging and self-assured pose. She wears a blue dress with a black openwork vest and has a red ornament (probably a peony) in her hair. Van Dongen had her pose in the bright light of an arc lamp and this accounts for the elliptical shadow in the background. He used strong colours: a glowing crimson for the background, a dark purplish red for the shadow, and deep cobalt blue for the dress.
According to Van Dongen's daughter Dolly, the portrait was painted in the artist's studio on the Rue Saulnier, near the Folies-Bergère music hall. It probably dates from 1911. Van Dongen exhibited the work in December of that year at the Parisian art dealer's Bernheim Jeune, where it bore the title La robe bleue. In Interior with a yellow door, which was painted in 1912 (Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) the work - albeit in a somewhat rudimentary form - is seen hanging over a dresser in his apartment; from this we can conclude that the artist gave it a prominent position in his own home.
In 1912, Roger Fry selected this imposing portrait for his second exhibition of post-impressionists at the Grafton Galleries in London, where a critic described it as ‘daring in its contrasted shades of purples and crimson.’ As at the exhibition held in Paris a year earlier, the work was not for sale. At a later date, the portrait passed to Dolly van Dongen. The supposition that she inherited it upon the artist's death, however, is incorrect: it was already in her possession before Van Dongen died in 1968. The absence of further details means that we can only speculate on the provenance of the work. If Dolly did not inherit the canvas from her father, she may have received it from her mother. Augusta and Van Dongen were divorced after the First World War; it probably passed to the former when the property was divided in the early 1920s.
Provenance Kees van Dongen, Paris (1911 - c. 1920?); Augusta Preitinger (c. 1920-1946)?; Dolly van Dongen, Paris (1946?-1987); François Roussel, Paris (1987-1989); New York (Habsburg/Feldman), 8 May 1989, lot 29; Mr and Mrs Jeffrey J. Steiner, London; Kunsthandel Ivo Bouwman, The Hague; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum, with the support of the Great Sponsor Lottery (1999).
Literature Jean Melas Kyriazi, Van Dongen et le Fauvisme, Lausanne & Paris [1971], pp. 113, 116; exhib. cat. Van Dongen,
Paris (Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris) & Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) 1967-68, no. 63; Anita Hopmans, ‘Kees van Dongen. De blauwe japon,’ Van Gogh Museum Bulletin 14 (1999), no. 3, pp. 14-17.
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Mesdag, Hendrik Willem
Dutch, 1831-1915
Breakers in the North Sea 1870
Oil on canvas, 90 × 180 cm
Signed at lower right: HW Mesdag 1870
s 494 S/1999
In 1870, just four years after he had set out to become a painter, and two after he had decided to devote himself to marine subjects, H.W. Mesdag won a gold medal at the Paris Salon with Breakers in the North Sea. Not only did this establish his reputation as an artist, it also helped him make his name as a painter of seascapes.
The source of his inspiration for this canvas was the coast of the North Sea at Scheveningen, which Mesdag was able to contemplate to his heart's content after settling nearby in The Hague in 1869. To carry out his studies, he rented a room with a sea view at the Villa Elba in Scheveningen.
The genesis of the work, however, is quite complex. After visiting the German island of Norderney in the summer of 1868, where he discovered his vocation as a marine painter, Mesdag embarked on a monumental seascape. Then, in Brussels, he saw a seascape by Courbet, and decided that the work he had begun in Norderney needed to be painted again. This decision was probably taken in late 1869, as one of Mesdag's friends, the
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Belgian artist Verwée, had seen the earlier version of the work at the end of August. In a letter dated 15 November 1869, Mesdag indicated that he had modified its subject. On 24 January 1870, he wrote to Verwée that he still had to complete his marine, but that he would have it finished by March in time to submit to the Salon.
The painting was bought at the exhibition by the genre and portrait painter Charles Chaplin, who had been a member of the jury. It is not known when it left his collection; it certainly did not feature in the auction of his studio in 1891. It was only in the 1980s that the work was finally traced by the Mesdag Documentatie Centrum. It was discovered that the picture had been cut in two and partially painted in with ships. These additions have been removed and the two parts reunited; for the first time in many decades, it is now possible to show the painting in its original state. (See also the article by Fred Leeman in this volume of the Van Gogh Museum Journal.)
Provenance Charles Chaplin, Paris; Art Agencies International, The Hague; Ir Joh. Poort, Wassenaar; donated to the Van Gogh Museum (1999).
Literature Exhib. cat. The Hague School: Dutch masters of the 19th century, The Hague (Gemeentemuseum), Paris (Grand Palais) & London (Royal Academy) 1983, p. 81; Johan Poort, Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915): Oeuvrecatalogus, Wassenaar 1989, pp. 41-43, no. 1870. 12; idem, ‘Les brisants de la Mer du Nord,’ Tableau (November 1991), pp. 74-77.
Portrait of Jozef Israëls 1872
Oil on canvas, 60.5 × 50.8 cm
Signed at lower right: H.W. Mesdag 1872
s 499 S/1999
Although it has been suggested that this work is a counterpart to the portrait Israëls painted of Mesdag, now also in the Museum Mesdag in The Hague, this is by no means certain. The two paintings are certainly different with regard to size. However, it is possible that Israëls's work, which was created several years after that by Mesdag, was painted in response to the latter.
Israëls was about 48 years of age when the portrait was painted, and already a celebrated painter both at home and abroad. While often portrayed in the literature as a simple and sensitive man guided by his intuition, he was in fact both very widely read and a lover of music. By giving his well-groomed and bespectacled sitter the aura of an intellectual, it is the second, truer, image Mesdag chose to reflect. And while most portraits of Israëls stress his diminutive stature, this is not the case here. Mesdag thus appears to pay homage to the doyen of the Hague School.
Provenance Private collection, Scheveningen; Ir Joh. Poort, Wassenaar; donated to the Van Gogh Museum (1999).
Literature Johan Poort, Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915): Oeuvrecatalogus, Wassenaar 1989, p. 133, no. 1872.02.
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Drawings
Denis, Maurice
French, 1870-1943
Study for the programme of Maurice Maeterlinck's L'intruse 1890-91
Black chalk, 19 × 13 cm
Signed at lower right (vertically): MAUD
d 1092 S/1999
This small drawing is a study for the theatre programme of Maurice Maeterlinck's play L'intruse. The final work appeared as a lithograph (executed by Paul Fort) in the programme for the première of the play at the Théâtre d'Art on 20 May 1891.
Shown here is the scene in which the three daughters, their father and an uncle meet at the house of the blind grandfather. The grief that is especially legible in the dejected mien of the three sisters is brought about by the uncertainty surrounding the condition of their mother, who lies in
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childbed. Only the blind greybeard seems to understand that his daughter has died only shortly before. A striking feature of the work is its decorative character, which is due in part to the flowing pattern of arabesques.
Despite its different appearance, this drawing is closely related to Denis's painting The two sisters from 1891 and now also in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum. While the drawing shows the complete scene from the play, the painting depicts only two of the sisters. Denis had originally made the painting after the work developed for the theatre programme, but he was dissatisfied with the result and cut the canvas into different pieces, transforming the fragment into a work in its own right.
Provenance Henri M. Petiet; Paris (Jean-Louis Picard), 4 July 1995, lot 55; private collection; donated to the Van Gogh Museum in memory of Peter Gottmer (1999).
Literature Van Gogh Museum Aanwinsten/Acquisitions 1986-1991, Zwolle & Amsterdam 1991, pp. 54-55; exhib. cat. Die Nabis: Propheten der Moderne, Zürich (Kunsthaus Zürich) 1993, p. 152; Paris (Jean-Louis Picard), 4 July 1995, lot 55.
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Hawkins, Louis Welden
French, 1849-1910
Self-portrait c. 1885
Black chalk and black ink, 16 × 17.5 cm
Signed at lower centre: X L. WELDEN HAWKINS. X
d 1088 S/1998
In this small work, just as in the painted self-portrait that has been in the Van Gogh Museum since 1993, Hawkins portrays himself as a gentleman. He wears a smart suit and a bow tie. Another feature this drawing shares with the painting is the presence of art in the background: behind the artist at the right, the drawing shows part of an artwork in an ornamental frame. It depicts a mythical creature, although we do not know if it is a work by Hawkins himself.
Hawkins first drew this self-portrait in black chalk, then used more black to lend extra emphasis to the shading of the face and the outlines of the shoulders, bow tie, collar and lapels. After rounding off the upper corners of the paper, he laid the work on cardboard, around which he placed a border before adding his signature.
Provenance Kunsthandel Schlichte Bergen, Amsterdam; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1998).
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Eugène Isabey
A shipwreck 1838
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Isabey, Eugène
French, 1803-1886
A shipwreck 1838
Gouache and charcoal on paper of irregular dimensions, 29.5 cm (left edge) 29.1 cm (right edge) × 40.4 cm (top edge) 40.3 cm (bottom edge)
Signed at lower right: E. Isabey 1838
d 1089 S/1999
The son of a miniaturist, Isabey was a successful painter of marines and historical pictures. He exhibited regularly at the Salon and was one of the leading court painters to Louis-Philippe under the July Monarchy. His romantic vision was influenced by his contacts with Delacroix and Huet, and by his discovery of contemporary British painting (he travelled to England in 1821 and 1825). He spent much of his career on the Normandy coast, where he helped popularise many of the sites later favoured by Boudin, Monet and Jongkind (who became his pupil).
This recently acquired gouache is a fine example of the kind of theatrical composition that helped establish Isabey's reputation. Although his marine paintings ranged from battle pictures to elaborate naval ceremonies, he became best known for his terrifying scenes of storms and shipwrecks. Here he has depicted the last dramatic moments of a stricken ship. All hope seems lost for the few survivors who cling to the bowsprit of the dismasted hulk as it is forced against the rocks. The dark sky streaked with a livid yellow in the distance and the hostile coastline reenforce the melodramatic mood.
Isabey attracted much attention for his free and rapid style of painting. Here, his virtuoso technique brilliantly evokes the wind driving through the shrouds, the water pouring off the side of the wreck, and the pounding waves. The massive spray behind the hull is actually unpainted paper with only a few touches of charcoal. Elsewhere he uses fluid, loaded touches of gouache to add highlights of colour and to draw attention to details such as the figures or the broken mast looming out of the water in the foreground.
Isabey produced a great many oil paintings of comparable themes, but it is not known whether this gouache has any direct relation with another picture. In spite of its modest size, it seems most likely to have been produced as an independent work of art rather than a study. A lithograph by Isabey depicting a very similar ship in the aftermath of a storm was published in 1836 and may have served as the basis for this composition.
Provenance Private collection; Kunsthandel Schlichte Bergen, Amsterdam (1999); purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1999).
Literature The work is not recorded in the Isabey literature but its authenticity has been confirmed by Pierre Miquel, author of the major monograph on the artist. On Isabey as a marine painter see P. Miquel, Eugène Isabey et la marine au XIXe siècle, 1803-1886, 2 vols., Maurs-la-Jolie, 1980. For the related lithograph see A. Curtis, Catalogue de l'oeuvre lithographiée d'Eugène Isabey, Paris 1939, no. 84: Brick échoué, 11.8 × 19.7 cm.
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Latouche, Gaston de
French, 1854-1913
Portrait of Joseph-Auguste Félix Bracquemond
Pastel, brush and ink, 77.5 × 55.8 cm
Signed at lower right: Gaston la Touche; and below
a horizontal line: GD
d 1090 S/1999
Gaston de Latouche received his first art lessons from Manet. At that time he was working in a naturalistic style; later, he specialised in fêtes galantes in the manner of Watteau, which brought him a number of commissions for a variety of decorative projects. Latouche also painted portraits of family members and artists, such as Rodin and Puvis de Chavannes.
This pastel shows his other master, the engraver and designer Felix Bracquemond (1833-1914). Holding a book, probably a bible or prayer book, the artist poses under a gothic arch, in front of a sculptural group depicting a Madonna and Child flanked by two saints. It is not certain whether the portrait is set at an altar, or in a chapel or church. The artist's use of yellow pastel to suggest a golden glow seems to indicate that the arch, the horizontal plinth under the statues, and the sculptures themselves, were partially gilded. Bracquemond's attitude suggests that he is deep in thought.
Both in his own time and today, Bracquemond's celebrity rests almost entirely on his work as an engraver. He was involved in the development of new techniques, and was often consulted by such contemporaries as Degas, Manet, Gauguin and Rodin. His position at the hub of the artistic life of his time is suggested by his role as one of the founders of not only the impressionist exhibitions, but also of the Société des Aquafortistes and the Société des Peintres-Graveurs. The Van Gogh Museum owns seven of his prints.
Provenance Sotheby's (New York), 5 May 1999, lot 377; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1999).
Literature Sotheby's (New York), 5 May 1999, lot 377.
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Léon Augustin Lhermitte
The harvesters
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Lhermitte, Léon Augustin
French, 1844-1925
The harvesters
Pastel, 22.5 × 30.5 cm
Signed at lower right: L Lhermitte
d 1091 S/1999
‘For me, that man is Millet II in the full sense of the word; I am as enraptured by his work as I am by that of Millet himself. I find his genius equal to that of Millet I’ [529/R57]. The man of whom Van Gogh speaks in this passage is none other than Léon Augustin Lhermitte. Like Millet, this artist focused on peasant life in general, and work on the land in particular - themes that were also close to Van Gogh's heart. Vincent knew Lhermitte's work mainly from the reproductions he collected so avidly.
The original collection of the Van Gogh Museum contained nothing by this realist painter; in the last few years, however, this situation has changed. The museum already owns one painting and four drawings; these are now joined by this fine pastel. The work shows a field in summertime, with two men and a woman haymaking. In the background at the right, a fourth figure can be seen, although it is uncertain whether he, too, is a haymaker. The haystack which fills the canvas at the lower left serves as a repoussoir device, drawing the spectator's gaze past the three workers and into the scene. Visible to the left of the two right-hand figures are outlines in pencil and chalk; these no doubt testify to an earlier idea on the part of the artist. The whole sheet is built up with energetically-applied dashes of colour.
Provenance Private collection, England; Sotheby's (London), 9 September 1998, lot 54; Thomas Williams Fine Art Ltd., London; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1999).
Literature Exhib. cat. Old Master drawings, London (Thomas Williams Fine Art Ltd.) 1999, no. 40.
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Voerman, Jan
Dutch, 1857-1941
Landscape with cows on the River IJssel near Hattem c. 1895-1900
Watercolour, 32.5 × 56.6 cm
Signed at lower left: JV
d 1093 S/1999
Jan Voerman grew up in a farming family in Kampen. From 1876 to 1883 he studied at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam. During his years in the Dutch capital, where he lived until 1889, he was in close contact with the so-called Tachtigers and with the artists of the Amsterdam School. After his marriage to Anna Verkade, sister of the artist Jan Verkade, he settled in Hattem in 1889, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. At the same time, he distanced himself from ‘impressionism,’ seeking instead to express the greatest possible purity of feeling in his work. He called this his ‘theoretical period.’ This change in manner was due, at least in part, to Jan Verkade, who had close links with French artists of the Nabis group. This lent his watercolours, in which he used both transparent and non-transparent paints, a drier, more pastel quality. He altered his style of composition as well as his technique, building up his work in flat planes. The result was often a static image with which Voerman sought to express the calm of nature. In the mid-1890s he introduced more colour into his work and slightly relaxed the rigid planning of his compositions.
The watercolour Landscape with cows on the River Ijssel - donated to the Van Gogh Museum by Henk van Ulsen, connoisseur and collector par excellence of Voerman's work - is undated. But the coloration and the somewhat freer composition suggest it was executed in the years between 1895 and 1900. It is painted entirely in opaque water-colour. Using a very fine brush, Voerman drew the outlines of the cows and of the houses of Hattem in the background.
Provenance Frans Buffa & Zonen, Amsterdam; E.J. van Wisselingh & Co., Amsterdam; H. Stork, Bergentheim; H. van Ulsen, Amsterdam; donated to the Van Gogh Museum by Mr H. van Ulsen (1999).
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Sculpture
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Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste
French, 1827-1875
Bust of Anna Foucart (‘Anna Foucart aux roses’) 1872/73
Plaster, H 63.5 cm
Signed on the base: J Bte Carpeaux
v 168 S/1999
Anna Foucart, the daughter of Carpeaux's old friend from Valenciennes, the lawyer Jean-Baptiste Foucart, posed several times for portraits but also for other works by the sculptor.
This bust was unknown until its recent publication by Daniel Katz in London. It is an original plaster, as indicated by the metal compass-points that would have served as guides for reproductions in other media. The bust is an excellent and especially lively example of Carpeaux's portraiture. The movement of the head and the delicate rendering of the textures of skin, hair and dress reveal the neo-baroque influences on the artist's style. The expressive gaze and the delicacy of the execution bear witness to the personal relationship between model and sculptor. Typical for Carpeaux is the smile that reveals the sitter's teeth, a modern (re)invention which adds a degree of realism to the portrait which would have been unthinkable in the classical tradition of only a few decades earlier.
Since Daniel Katz found the work in England, he has suggested that it was left there by the artist, which would also explain why there are no versions in other media. Like many of his fellow-artists, Carpeaux had fled the Commune for Britain, where he stayed from 1872 to 1873.
Provenance Private collection, England; Norman Adams (1962); Bernard Black, Monte Carlo; Daniel Katz Ltd., London; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1999).
Literature Exhib. cat. European sculpture, New York (Daniel Katz Ltd at The Newhouse Galleries) 1999, no. 21.
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