Carel Willink (1900-1983)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED DUTCH COLLECTION
Carel Willink (1900-1983)

Berglandschap

Details
Carel Willink (1900-1983)
Berglandschap
signed and dated 'Willink '38' (lower right)
oil on canvas
25 ¼ x 34 5/8 in. (64 x 88 cm.)
Painted in 1938
Provenance
Acquired from the artist by the grandfather of the present owners, and thence by decent.
Literature
H.L.C. Jaffé, Willink, Amsterdam, 1979, no. 183, p. 85.
Exhibited
Amsterdam, Kunsthandel van Lier, Carel Willink, October - November 1938.
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Carel Willink, October - November 1939.
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Ottavia Marchitelli
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Lot Essay


Carel Willink is one of the foremost Dutch artists of the 20th century. After experimenting with expressionist and abstract art at the beginning of his career, he turned to figuration, developing his personal neorealist style, which he himself referred to as ‘imaginary realism’. In 1931, he travelled to Italy, visiting Florence and Pisa, and venturing as south as Pompeii. This journey, echoing the 18th century Grand Tour, exerted a profound influence on his œuvre.

The present work is a perfect example of Willink’s style of the 1930s. A picturesque landscape, abiding at first glance to the rules of classical painting, is in reality pervaded by a foreboding sense of threat, emphasised by the dark, leaden sky. The widespread feeling of uncertainty of the time, together with the political turmoil, were subtly conveyed by Willink in his paintings, in which a 'former symbol of pastoral peace can form unbearable menace' (H.L.C. Jaffé, Willink, Amsterdam, 1979, p. 194).

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