Schedel - Skull

Details

Edgar Fernhout (Dutch, 1912-1974)
Schedel - Skull
signed with initials and dated 'E.F.35' (lower right), and signed and dated again, inscribed with title and inscribed 'Bergen' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
55.5 x 46.5 cm.

Provenance

Charley Toorop, Bergen (N.H.)
A.M. Kerkhof, The Hague, thence by descent to the present owners.

Literature

A.M. Hammacher, 'Edgar Fernhout', Kroniek van Kunst en Kultuur, 10, no. 4, April 1949, p. 123-126. p. 125.
A. v.d. Berk, Edgar Fernhout, Eindhoven 1990, no. 36, p. 116 (ill.) Studioso, Edgar Fernhout, Nijmegen 1995, p. 8. (ill.)
M. Rijnders a.o., Edgar Fernhout. In het licht van Alassio, Arnhem 2002, no. 36, p. 162.

Exhibited

Amsterdam, Kunsthandel Huinck & Scherjon, Werken van Tijdgenoten, 23 March - 20 April 1935, no. 44.
The Hague, Kunstzalen d'Audretsch, Tentoonstelling van werk door Edgar Fernhout, 20 January - 12 February 1936.
Eindhoven, Stedelijke van Abbe-museum, Hedendaagse Nederlandse kunst, 8 April - 15 June 1936, no. 76.
Utrecht, Vereeniging 'Voor de Kunst', Schilderijen van Charley Toorop en Edgar Fernhout, 23 February - 15 March 1936, no. 8.
The Hague, Kunsthandel G.J. Nieuwenhuizen Segaar, De schedel in de schilderkunst van 1500-1936, 21 November - 17 December 1936, no. 12. The Hague, Kunstzalen d'Audretsch, Tentoonstelling van werken van Edgar Fernhout, 16 December 1937 - 4 January 1938, no. 1.
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Zomertentoonstelling, 26 June - 12 September 1937, no. 23.
The Hague, Kunsthandel Nieuwenhuizen Segaar, Drie Generaties, 30 March-1 May 1937, no. 58.
Zutphen, Zutphense Kunstvereeniging Pictura, Edgar Fernhout, 16 November - December 1938, no. 5.
Rotterdam, Rotterdamsche Kunstkring, Kersttentoonstelling, 21 December 1938 - 8 January 1940, no. 13.
The Hague, Haags Gemeentemuseum, Facetten van Hedendaagse schilderkunst, België, Luxemburg, Nederland, 25 June - 8 August 1949, no. 207.
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Edgar Fernhout, 20 January - 11 March 1999, no. 6.
Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Vier Generaties, 20 October - 3 February 2002, no. 73.
Arnhem, Museum van Moderne Kunst, Edgar Fernhout, 19 October 2002 - 16 February 2003, no. 18.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Edgar Fernhout had painted several still lifes before he painted Schedel in 1935. In that year he paints two still lifes in which the objects are placed on a ledge in an open window. In Schelp en Blad (cat.no. 38) the background with autumn leaves is very similar to Schedel.
Fernhout's early works show his interest for old master still life painters. The composition of his still lifes, placing the object in the foreground with a landscape in the background, puts Fernhout in the tradition of Dutch still life painting. Schedel is in this sense a classical vanitas still life where the autumn atmosphere and the skull must remind us of our mortality.

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