Lot Essay
The present lot can be considered as another '
The present lot was executed after 1907, when Jacobus van Looy and his wife Titia van Looy-Gelder had moved to Haarlem and taken up residence in the Kleine Houtweg 103. The artist and his wife lived in great solation in Haarlem, cutting off old friendships and refusing to participate in the cultural and social life of the city. His wife closely guarded his privacy, making sure he could dedicate himself completely to his work in his studio at home. Mrs van Looy tended the garden, where she grew lots of flowers and fruits, which could serve her husband as inspiration. It is very likely that the present lot was actually painted outside in this garden. In this period of his life, Van Looy didn't participate in exhibitions anymore. If collectors enquired about the possible purchase of a work, he advised them to contact his wife, who he considered to be the owner of all the works. She was also not keen to sell. In this way, the majority of the works executed in this period remained in the Kleine Houtweg untill the artist's death, after which his widow kept the house as a museum in
memory of her husband. The city of Haarlem, to whom the house and its contents had been bequeathed by Mrs van Looy in 1940, decided to disperse of the collection and sold the contents of the house in 1949. According to the inventory of the house drawn up in 1934, the present lot hung in the private room of Mrs van Looy. Judging from the description of other works which also hung there, the present lot must have been the most important work in the r0om.
The work can be dated towards 1916 on the basis of the artist's poem Papaverbed which was first published in the Nieuwe Gids II in 1916 (pp. 114/116). It was later published in the Gedichten 1884-1925, published in 1932 under supervision of Mrs Titia van Looy-van Gelder in 1932. In the poem Van Looy describes the atmosphere in a field of poppies during a summer's day, the flowers all fresh and their stems straight in the morning, with the buds opening up and the bees actively buzzing. The hot afternoon sun makes the flowers slowly wither and finally perish. The mysterious atmosphere of the poppyfield described in the poem has been fully captured in the present lot.
See colour illustration and front cover illustration
The present lot was executed after 1907, when Jacobus van Looy and his wife Titia van Looy-Gelder had moved to Haarlem and taken up residence in the Kleine Houtweg 103. The artist and his wife lived in great solation in Haarlem, cutting off old friendships and refusing to participate in the cultural and social life of the city. His wife closely guarded his privacy, making sure he could dedicate himself completely to his work in his studio at home. Mrs van Looy tended the garden, where she grew lots of flowers and fruits, which could serve her husband as inspiration. It is very likely that the present lot was actually painted outside in this garden. In this period of his life, Van Looy didn't participate in exhibitions anymore. If collectors enquired about the possible purchase of a work, he advised them to contact his wife, who he considered to be the owner of all the works. She was also not keen to sell. In this way, the majority of the works executed in this period remained in the Kleine Houtweg untill the artist's death, after which his widow kept the house as a museum in
memory of her husband. The city of Haarlem, to whom the house and its contents had been bequeathed by Mrs van Looy in 1940, decided to disperse of the collection and sold the contents of the house in 1949. According to the inventory of the house drawn up in 1934, the present lot hung in the private room of Mrs van Looy. Judging from the description of other works which also hung there, the present lot must have been the most important work in the r0om.
The work can be dated towards 1916 on the basis of the artist's poem Papaverbed which was first published in the Nieuwe Gids II in 1916 (pp. 114/116). It was later published in the Gedichten 1884-1925, published in 1932 under supervision of Mrs Titia van Looy-van Gelder in 1932. In the poem Van Looy describes the atmosphere in a field of poppies during a summer's day, the flowers all fresh and their stems straight in the morning, with the buds opening up and the bees actively buzzing. The hot afternoon sun makes the flowers slowly wither and finally perish. The mysterious atmosphere of the poppyfield described in the poem has been fully captured in the present lot.
See colour illustration and front cover illustration