Lot Essay
The painter-author Jacobus van Looy was brought up to become a carriage painter. At the academy he was a pupil and protégé of August Allebé. From then on no other influences seem to have affected him. A jury in which Allebé was installed awarded the artist with the Prix de Rome in 1884.
Van Looy won distinction as a writer of stately prose, often well-received by the critics of his time, which was not always the case for his paintings.
After van Looy's death in 1930 his widow Titia van Looy-van Gelder made it her task to commemorate her late husband. She had their house in Haarlem converted to be a museum for his pictures and drawings. Besides she organized literary salons, where she read his work to a public. When Titia van Looy died in 1940, she willed the municipality of Haarlem her property, whilst stating that the house be used as a public museum. She also forbade that any changes be made regarding the interior of the house. The city of Haarlem decided not to accept the legacy, and the house was offered for sale in 1949. The Stichting Jacobus van Looy managed to purchase a large part of the collection and lent a large part of the collection to the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem.
The present lot, although in the estate sale from 1949, was not amongst the purchases of the Stichting Jacobus van Looy and recently reappeared in a local sale in Haarlem, where it was offered as work from an unknown artist. Van Looy painted the Bloemvisioen Oostindische kers in Soest, 1907, just before he and his wife moved to Haarlem. There he finished the canvas. He painted the subject twice before: the first time the result was the splendid canvas De Tuin, painted in 1893 (private collection, The Netherlands), the second time it was the Oostindische kers Soest, painted in 1895/96 (private collection, The Netherlands).
All three compositions were, notwithstanding their large size, executed en plein air. This apparently (according to the notes left by his wife) took place in his own garden, from which he took his inspiration. This was the garden where 'donkere verbloeiingen van Indische kers het bolle pad bekropen en de beukhegge in. "Hartebloed, hartebloed", murmelde onze held'(De Wonderbaarlijke avonturen van Zebedeus, 1901).
Van Looy occupied a place amidst the so-called Amsterdam Impressionists: a group of painters mainly pupils of Professor Allebé, choosing their subjects from modern everyday life. In spite of the strong brushwork, Van Looy's paintings have nothing in common with the impulsive and nervous painting of Israels or Breitner. Instead, the artist's brushstrokes are precise and well-considered, going over the canvasses again and again. His use of colours is generally looked upon as his strongest quality, strongly affected by the journeys in Spain that he undertook after winning the Prix de Rome in 1884. The colouring is often unreal and betrays a search for colour in the studio. In his early work the colouring is rather dark. After 1907 it gets brighter, probably influenced by him working en plein air. Forced by the nature of the subject, the tonality of the present lot is still rather dark. The composition focusses on the red-glowing flowers of the Indian cress, tangling in a hornbeam shrub. The odd appearance of three pink flowers in the centre of the composition gives the painting an unreal and mysterious expression. The catalogue of the estate sale from 1949 refers to the present lot as a masterpiece.
See colour illustration
Van Looy won distinction as a writer of stately prose, often well-received by the critics of his time, which was not always the case for his paintings.
After van Looy's death in 1930 his widow Titia van Looy-van Gelder made it her task to commemorate her late husband. She had their house in Haarlem converted to be a museum for his pictures and drawings. Besides she organized literary salons, where she read his work to a public. When Titia van Looy died in 1940, she willed the municipality of Haarlem her property, whilst stating that the house be used as a public museum. She also forbade that any changes be made regarding the interior of the house. The city of Haarlem decided not to accept the legacy, and the house was offered for sale in 1949. The Stichting Jacobus van Looy managed to purchase a large part of the collection and lent a large part of the collection to the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem.
The present lot, although in the estate sale from 1949, was not amongst the purchases of the Stichting Jacobus van Looy and recently reappeared in a local sale in Haarlem, where it was offered as work from an unknown artist. Van Looy painted the Bloemvisioen Oostindische kers in Soest, 1907, just before he and his wife moved to Haarlem. There he finished the canvas. He painted the subject twice before: the first time the result was the splendid canvas De Tuin, painted in 1893 (private collection, The Netherlands), the second time it was the Oostindische kers Soest, painted in 1895/96 (private collection, The Netherlands).
All three compositions were, notwithstanding their large size, executed en plein air. This apparently (according to the notes left by his wife) took place in his own garden, from which he took his inspiration. This was the garden where 'donkere verbloeiingen van Indische kers het bolle pad bekropen en de beukhegge in. "Hartebloed, hartebloed", murmelde onze held'(De Wonderbaarlijke avonturen van Zebedeus, 1901).
Van Looy occupied a place amidst the so-called Amsterdam Impressionists: a group of painters mainly pupils of Professor Allebé, choosing their subjects from modern everyday life. In spite of the strong brushwork, Van Looy's paintings have nothing in common with the impulsive and nervous painting of Israels or Breitner. Instead, the artist's brushstrokes are precise and well-considered, going over the canvasses again and again. His use of colours is generally looked upon as his strongest quality, strongly affected by the journeys in Spain that he undertook after winning the Prix de Rome in 1884. The colouring is often unreal and betrays a search for colour in the studio. In his early work the colouring is rather dark. After 1907 it gets brighter, probably influenced by him working en plein air. Forced by the nature of the subject, the tonality of the present lot is still rather dark. The composition focusses on the red-glowing flowers of the Indian cress, tangling in a hornbeam shrub. The odd appearance of three pink flowers in the centre of the composition gives the painting an unreal and mysterious expression. The catalogue of the estate sale from 1949 refers to the present lot as a masterpiece.
See colour illustration