Kees van Dongen (Delfshaven 1877-1968 Monte Carlo)

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more

FESTIVE AMSTERDAM: KEES VAN DONGEN AND THE ROYAL WEDDING CELEBRATIONS ON 5-9 MARCH 1901 (LOTS 83-89) After having taken evening classes at the Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam from 1892 to 1896 van Dongen moved to Paris in 1897. He was, however, back in Rotterdam in 1898 to provide illustrations for the Rotterdam Nieuwsblad, a local newspaper which was the first in the Netherlands to illustrate its reports. Van Dongen set off again for Paris in 1899 but was once again back in Holland at the beginning of 1901. There he was commissioned by the magazine Elsevier's Geïllustreerd Maandschrift to make twelve to fifteen drawings of the festivities held in Amsterdam from 5 to 9 March 1901 in honour of the marriage of Queen Wilhelmina of Holland (1880-1962) and Henry, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1876-1934), which had taken place in The Hague on 7 February of that year. Van Dongen was supposed to be paid eight guilders for this, and he stayed in Amsterdam for about a week. The drawings were handed over in time but it would appear from a report on the legal action which followed as a result of non-payment that the publisher had rejected the drawings and that they were therefore never published. Later that same year van Dongen provided illustrations for the French magazine La Revue Blanche and was asked to illustrate an entire issue of the famous L'Assiette au Beurre. These two collaborations marked a real breakthrough in the artist's career. The eight following lots are the only known drawings made for the Elsevier commission. The drawings are all executed in pen and brush and black ink over a cursory design in pencil or blue chalk on light beige paper.

Kees van Dongen (Delfshaven 1877-1968 Monte Carlo)

Festive Amsterdam: The coach

Details

Kees van Dongen (Delfshaven 1877-1968 Monte Carlo)
Festive Amsterdam: The coach
signed 'v. Dongen.'
blue chalk, pen and brush with black ink on light beige paper
5 x 8 in. (12.8 x 20.3 cm.)

Provenance

Jean-François van Royen (1878-1942), by descent to his daughter, A.L.W. van Regteren Altena-van Royen (1906-2006), and by descent to the present owners.

Exhibited

Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, and other locations, The Van Dongen nobody knows: Early and Fauvist Drawings 1895-1912, 1996-97, no. 29, illustrated p. 118 (catalogue by A. Hopmans).

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Benjamin Peronnet

bperonnet@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2272

Lot Essay

The coach in which the royal couple is depicted is the Golden Coach, which Queen Wilhemina received from the citizens of Amsterdam at her investiture in 1898, and was first used on the occasion of her marriage. Since 1903 it has been mainly used by the successive Dutch monarchs on Prinsjesdag, the third Tuesday in September on the occasion of the monarch's address to the people

The Wildenstein Institute has confirmed that this drawing will be included in the van Dongen catalogue raisonné which is currently in preparation.

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