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Lot Essay
Jan Sluijters was on an experimental quest to discover new ways of painting, which had an immense impulse during his stay in Paris in 1906, where Sluijters studied with a scholarship after winning the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1904. During his stay in the French capital Sluijters’ art changed radically. He started to combine new techniques with his academic style and the more illustrative and caricatural style he used as an illustrator. Sluijters rented a room in Hotel Chaptal, close to Montmartre and many cafes and bars such as Rat Mort, Bal Tabarin and the Moulin Rouge. During the Salon des Independants of 1906 the ‘modern’ life: the representation of the nightlife with electric lighting, which was still new to most people, became a popular subject for artists like Kees van Dongen, who experimented extensively with this subject. Sluijters obviously was very inspired. He wanted to paint ‘en plein air’ and according to a friend who visited Sluijters in Paris, he started the present lot in the Bal Tabarin during a festive night before finishing it later in Amsterdam.
The present lot has a beautifully balanced composition in which the electric light gives an exceptional atmosphere to the work. Colourful thickly applied dots and stripes dominate the scene and the dancing people. It seems to be painted swiftly in a bold expressive manner, which enhances the feeling of movement in the work. Sluijters creates a contrast by using a more precise representation of the two figures in the foreground. In Bal Tabarin (1907, now in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam) which Sl uijters painted a year later he was even more focused on the bright yellow lighting in the dancehall. He put everything he absorbed in Paris in one monumental painting. When Sluijters showed his new work to the committee of the Prix-de-Rome, who supported him financially, they were unhappy with the result. For them this ‘new French painting’ was everything painting should not be and he lost his price and allowance.
Jan Sluijters and the first owners of the present lot, Mr. and Mrs. Ger Hoogerhoud, were good friends. They both lived in the same house at the Lohmanstraat 99 in Amsterdam. The artist held his studio on the top floor of the house from 1913 until 1930 and painted many views of the Amstelveenseweg from there. Mr. Hoogerhoud bought various paintings from Sluijters, always buying them at auction so he would make sure to pay the market value. The present lot has been in the family ever since it was purchased in 1947. Since 2006 the work has been on loan to the Singer Museum in Laren.
Included in the digital Catalogue Raisonné on the artist's work by the RKD - Netherlands Institute for Art History: sluijters.rkdmonographs.nl.
The present lot has a beautifully balanced composition in which the electric light gives an exceptional atmosphere to the work. Colourful thickly applied dots and stripes dominate the scene and the dancing people. It seems to be painted swiftly in a bold expressive manner, which enhances the feeling of movement in the work. Sluijters creates a contrast by using a more precise representation of the two figures in the foreground. In Bal Tabarin (1907, now in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam) which Sl uijters painted a year later he was even more focused on the bright yellow lighting in the dancehall. He put everything he absorbed in Paris in one monumental painting. When Sluijters showed his new work to the committee of the Prix-de-Rome, who supported him financially, they were unhappy with the result. For them this ‘new French painting’ was everything painting should not be and he lost his price and allowance.
Jan Sluijters and the first owners of the present lot, Mr. and Mrs. Ger Hoogerhoud, were good friends. They both lived in the same house at the Lohmanstraat 99 in Amsterdam. The artist held his studio on the top floor of the house from 1913 until 1930 and painted many views of the Amstelveenseweg from there. Mr. Hoogerhoud bought various paintings from Sluijters, always buying them at auction so he would make sure to pay the market value. The present lot has been in the family ever since it was purchased in 1947. Since 2006 the work has been on loan to the Singer Museum in Laren.
Included in the digital Catalogue Raisonné on the artist's work by the RKD - Netherlands Institute for Art History: sluijters.rkdmonographs.nl.