BF 122

 

KEES VAN DONGEN

Delfshaven 1877 - 1968 Monaco

 

Voiliers à Cannes

 

Signed

Oil on canvas: 19 ¾ x 25 ¾  in / 50.2 x 65.4 cm

Framed size: 26 1/2 x 32 ¼ in / 67.3 x 81.9 cm

 

Provenance:

Galerie Charpentier, Paris

Private collection, Europe, acquired from the above in June 1957

Then by descent

 

Exhibited:

Charleroi, Palais des Beaux Arts, Van Dongen, 1964

 

To be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the work of Kees van Dongen being prepared by Jacques Chalom des Cordes under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Foundation

 

In a reproduction, carved and gilded Louis XV frame

Frame size: 26 ½ x 32 ¼ in / 67.3 x 81.9 cm

 

 

Voiliers à Cannes depicts the bay of Cannes with the Mont Chevalier in the distance; in the foreground is the Hôtel Ambassadeurs. The painting captures the luminosity and carefree spirit of Cannes, the resort activities of sailing and strolling on the beach. However, it is the hazy, soft pink colouration of the sun reflecting off Mont Chevalier in the distance that epitomizes the atmosphere of this Mediterranean scene. Van Dongen centres our attention on the white sailing boats which are juxtaposed by the deep blue water.  The water is rendered with long, smooth brushstrokes, imparting a feeling of stillness to the scene.   The present work, like much of van Dongen’s later oeuvre, renders a vibrant, blissful scene, using lustrous colours.  ‘Throughout his life, van Dongen maintained his youthful spontaneity that was to be a lifelong charm of his personality’ (Van Dongen, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson 1971, p.10).

 

 

 

Cannes. La Croisette et le Mont Chevalier

 

KEES VAN DONGEN

Delfshaven 1877 - 1968 Monaco

 

 

 

A painter and potter van Dongen was born in Delfshaven, near Rotterdam.   Abandoning Holland for Paris in 1897, his heavy Dutch Expressionist style was soon tempered by the late Impressionists, becoming by 1905 one of the most dynamic of the Fauves.   He lived first in Montmartre, supporting himself by house painting, and then in Montparnasse, exhibiting at the Galerie Charpentier as well as in many shows both in France and abroad.

 

Van Dongen was also a prolific graphic artist and illustrator contributing satirical drawings to L'Assiette au Beurre and illustrations for Rudyard Kipling's Tales and Arabian Nights.   In these works the influence of Jean-Louis Forain and Henri de Toulouse Lautrec is apparent.

 

After the First World War van Dongen became a popular painter of the beau-monde and the demi-monde, depicting the hedonistic world of Paris, Venice and the Cote d'Azur.   His pictures are characterised by a rich, intense colour and a fluid line.