Harm Kamerlingh Onnes (Dutch, 1893-1985)

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PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR Harm Hendrick Kamerlingh Onnes grew up in a cultural and academic family. His father Menso was a painter, his mother a musician. The painter Floris Verster was one of his uncles. Harm started painting in 1914 at the age of 19. His father gave him his first lessons. Soon after, Harm made his first acquaintance with work by Van Gogh and the later luminist movement which made a deep impact on him. It prompted him to change his style into a more expressionitic style, resulting in brighter colours and looser brush strokes. During his life Harm was a member of various artists societies. As a member of society De Sfynx, Harm and his friend J.J.P. Oud, the architect, met Theo van Doesburg, who introduced them to the ideas and artists of De Stijl. The abstract didn't work for Harm though. He preffered to be a storyteller, producing anecdotal, ironic and humorous works in his own original naive style. Dat geknoei van mij (my messing around), as he used to call his work, consists of paintings, drawings, pastels, watercolours and stained glass windows. He also designed stamps and was a ceramist. Besides a wide range of techniques, his work also covers a wide range of subjects: landscapes, portraits, still lives and amusing genre scenes, which he called 'pantomimes'. The lots in this sale clearly show the variety of subjects and his versatility in technique applying watercolour, pencil, charcoal, oil and other media.

Harm Kamerlingh Onnes (Dutch, 1893-1985)

In the cafe

Details

Harm Kamerlingh Onnes (Dutch, 1893-1985)
In the cafe
signed with monogram (lower left)
oil on board
38 x 32 cm.

Special notice

Christie's charges a Buyer's premium calculated at 23.205% of the hammer price for each lot with a value up to €110,000. If the hammer price of a lot exceeds €110,000 then the premium for the lot is calculated at 23.205% of the first €110,000 plus 11.9% of any amount in excess of €110,000. Buyer's Premium is calculated on this basis for each lot individually.

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