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Lot Essay
The self-portrait is an important and recurrent genre in Dick Ket's oeuvre. Shortly after an exhibition held at Kunstzaal Van Lier in Amsterdam in January 1934, he embarked on a series of three small self-portraits with attributes, of which the present lot is one. He worked on them until 1937, but then decided to execute an almost identical series on coarser canvas, and left the original versions unfinished.
The posters by Cassandre in the background of the first versions no longer appear in the second series. We know from Ket's correspondence that the idea for the three self-portraits took shape gradually. The self-portrait with a bread roll followed those with a paintbrush and with medicines, which he had conceived some time earlier.
The self-portrait with a bread roll, which Ket also referred to as 'the eater', shows him with his head turned to the right and therefore belongs on the left of the triptych. Ket must initially have played with the idea of hanging it on the right, as he also made a version with his head inclined to the left (Alied Ottevanger, op. cit. cat. no. 116).
Ket never completed the first versions, but hung them separately in his living room. They were never exhibited during his lifetime.
The three later self-portraits (now at the Gemeentemuseum in Arnhem, cat. no. 132) were placed in a single frame. Though they are perhaps technically more proficient than the first series, Ket remained attached to their predecessors, which he felt had more 'warmth'. The second versions were never quite finished either, and remained unsigned.
After the death of their son, Ket's parents presented the three paintings from the first series to friends and acquaintances. The self-portrait with a bread roll thus came into the possession of the Van Booren-Ten Kate family.
The posters by Cassandre in the background of the first versions no longer appear in the second series. We know from Ket's correspondence that the idea for the three self-portraits took shape gradually. The self-portrait with a bread roll followed those with a paintbrush and with medicines, which he had conceived some time earlier.
The self-portrait with a bread roll, which Ket also referred to as 'the eater', shows him with his head turned to the right and therefore belongs on the left of the triptych. Ket must initially have played with the idea of hanging it on the right, as he also made a version with his head inclined to the left (Alied Ottevanger, op. cit. cat. no. 116).
Ket never completed the first versions, but hung them separately in his living room. They were never exhibited during his lifetime.
The three later self-portraits (now at the Gemeentemuseum in Arnhem, cat. no. 132) were placed in a single frame. Though they are perhaps technically more proficient than the first series, Ket remained attached to their predecessors, which he felt had more 'warmth'. The second versions were never quite finished either, and remained unsigned.
After the death of their son, Ket's parents presented the three paintings from the first series to friends and acquaintances. The self-portrait with a bread roll thus came into the possession of the Van Booren-Ten Kate family.