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AFTERNOON SESSION AT 2.OO P.M. PRECISELY (Lots 186-356) PIET BOENDERMAKER AND 'DE BERGENSE SCHOOL' The following section of works by artists of the so-called 'Bergense school' contains a remarkable quantity of paintings, which once formed part of the collection of Piet Boendermaker; one of the most important Dutch art collectors of the first half of the 20th century.(Lots 186-189, 191-200, 204, 208, 209, 211, 212, 218) "Boendermaker was the main collector of the Bergen-Amsterdam expressionism, better known as 'Bergense school'. This typically Dutch art movement flourished between 1915 and 1925, partly thanks to Boendermaker's extensive acquisitions, his personal interest and his support as a patron.(..) Boendermaker was born in 1877 in Amsterdam. He was the eldest son of Cornelis Boendermaker, a highly succesful estate agent and property developer. Piet was destined to join the family business and started working there in 1901. During the same year, he married Marie Schoenmaker, the daughter of one of his father's foremen. Shortly afterwards, he began to buy works of art: paintings, watercolours and drawings from living artists who worked in generally accepted and traditional styles. In 1911, father and son agreed that Piet would devote himself entirely to his hobby; art collecting. Boendermaker senior provided his son with a good income and funds to buy works of art. Dr. J.F.S. Esser introduced Boendermaker to the Amsterdam art circles around 1908-1910. Esser was at that time one of the main Dutch collectors of contemporary art. Through him, Boendermaker met with Leo Gestel, who became the closest of his artist friends, introducing him to other painters and advising him on his purchases (..). The 'Amsterdam modernists', inspired by French poinitllism and fauvism, worked in the years before 1910 with light and colours as their medium of expression; this led to the development of the Amsterdam luminist school. Influenced by the latest developments in Paris, they then experimented with cubist and futuristic forms. In 1914-15, the 'modernists', some of whom moved to Bergen in the province of Noord-Holland, began their search for a more personal expression in their work on the dark cubist-expressionist style which after 1920 was rapidly recognised as the style of the 'Bergense School'. The first ideas for this type of expressionism came from the French artist Henri Le Fauconnier and his Dutch promoter, the Amsterdam painter Piet van Wijngaerdt. (..) However, the 'Bergense School' also had other sources of inspiration. The painters were influenced by Dutch traditions such as the dark palette, which is also apparent in Dutch impressionism. They favoured Cezanne's principles of spatial composition and the emotion of Van Gogh's later work, and some of them also used natural symbolism rooted in romanticism.(..) In 1918, Boendermaker followed Leo Gestel and a number of other painters to the holiday village of Bergen. The focal point of Bergen-Amsterdam expressionism moved from Amsterdam to Bergen, and Boendermaker's home became the lively social centre for the Bergen artists. Boendermaker's collection grew quickly during this period, from some 200 to 250 works in 1915 to more than 1,500 in 1925. The main exponents of the genre were Leo Gestel, Arnout Colnot, Dirk Filarski, Else Berg, Mommie Schwarz, Matthieu Wiegman, Piet Wiegman and the Belgian Gustave de Smet. One of the two founders, Piet van Wijngaerdt, is also well-represented in the collection.(..) After he moved to Bergen, Boendermaker continued to maintain close contacts with Amsterdam where, following Esser's example, he had lent paintings to the Stedelijk Museum since 1914. During the 1920's, donations to the museum followed. (..) The crisis of the early 1930's brought Boendermaker's art purchases to an abrupt end. In 1933 Boendermaker was forced to transfer ownership of his collection, now containing almost 2,500 works, to the Real Estate Bank (Bank voor Onroerende Zaken) in Amsterdam. Nevertheless, in the second half of the decade, Boendermaker became active again. (..) During World War II, the bank again tried to sell works from the collection, with little success. Immediately after the war in 1945 and 1946, sales exhibitions were organised at branches of the Vroom & Dreesmann department stores in Amsterdam and The Hague. Piet Boendermaker died on 2 February 1947. In 1952, the bank instructed the Stedelijk Museum to list the remainder of the collection for sale. More than 1,400 paintings, watercolours and drawings were sold, in a total of seven auctions for prices ranging forum about Nlg. 20 to a maximum of Nlg 400. Appreciation of Bergen-Amsterdam expressionism would not revive until years later.(..) Piet Boendermaker was no theoretician; his affinity with art was purely emotional. He would buy large numbers of works, spontaneously, impulsively (..) The painters were his friends, and his greatest pleasure was to support them. For the artists it meant that they could work without too many financial problems, and in that way Boendermaker laid the foundation for the development of the 'Bergense school', a movement that was rejected in many circles at the time for its modernity. His loans and donations to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and his later loans to schools, youth centres and hospitals (..) made Boendermaker a remarkable figure in the art world of his day. He believed in the principle that works of art do not actually exist unless they are seen as much as possible. (..) At a time when the government left modern art to its own device, the real support provided by Boendermaker should not be underestimated. 'Patron of the Arts, bigger than the State', a newspaper called him on his 60th birthday, and that claim could easily upheld to date." (cf.lit.: P. Spijk, De Bergense School en Piet Boendermaker, Zwolle 1997, pp. 191-197) R(fig. 1: detail stretcher lot 212) Annotations on the reverse of the pictures: - numbers in ink on small labels refer to Boendermaker's own numbering from circa 1930. - numbers in blue crayons refer to the inventory report made out by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1952-'56. - other numbers in red refer to either Boendermaker's own numbering or the inventory made out by the Real Estate Bank in 1932-33. - P.B. numbers (f.i. P.B. 1940) refer to a loan to the municipality of Amsterdam. PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE DUTCH COLLECTOR

Germ de Jong (1886-1967)

Stilleven met rooie lap - A still life with flowers and a red cloth

Details

Germ de Jong (1886-1967)
Stilleven met rooie lap - A still life with flowers and a red cloth
signed and dated 'Germ de Jong 1930' (lower right), and signed again and inscribed with title (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
100 x 100 cm.

Provenance

Piet Boendermaker, Bergen, no. 1236 (on a label on the stretcher), P.B. 1943 in blue crayons (on the stretcher)

Special notice

Christie's charge a buyer's premium of 20.825% of the hammer price for lots with values up to NLG 200,000. If the hammer price exceeds the NLG 200,000 then the premium is calculated at 20.825% of the first NLG 200,000 plus 11.9% of any amount in excess of NLG 200,000.

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