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Lot Essay
With the use of silver-grey and pink pearlescent shades combined with contrasting bright red and orange colours, Rik Wouters shows us his interest in contrast and composition. The present lot shows chrysanthemums in a vase on a balcony, demonstrating the artist's talent for combining the three-dimensional with the two-dimensional surface of the painting, using broad brushstrokes and a somewhat thicker layer of paint.
While Wouters had a great admiration for the work of James Ensor, his work is also unthinkable without the influence of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). The analytical view of Cézanne and his way of looking for a balance between colour and impressions of light on the one hand and the display of form on the other can be seen in many of Wouters' works. Influenced by Cézanne, he developed an individual style of painting, which preserves the mean between impressionism and expressionism, or perhaps best described as post-impressionist, later adopted as Brabants Fauvism.
At the beginning of his painter career in 1896 the artist did not seem to escape the academicism of his education at first. Until 1901 he confined himself mainly to portraits. This would change within a few years with his search for a better representation of light in which he developed a preference for interiors and still lifes; mostly painted with a painters’ knife (spatula), showing an abundant use of colour. By abandoning the use of the spatula in 1911, Wouters changed his style in order to obtain more transparency with diluted paint and the use of absorbing canvases.
Unfortunately, the period from 1914 until 1916 was marked by war, exile and illness. Wouters and his wife Nel were residing in Amsterdam at that time, and even though the artist's health was deteriorating quickly, he regained his will to paint. Executed in 1915, this work still testifies the visual experience of light and brightness. In 1916 Rik Wouters died at a young age.
While Wouters had a great admiration for the work of James Ensor, his work is also unthinkable without the influence of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). The analytical view of Cézanne and his way of looking for a balance between colour and impressions of light on the one hand and the display of form on the other can be seen in many of Wouters' works. Influenced by Cézanne, he developed an individual style of painting, which preserves the mean between impressionism and expressionism, or perhaps best described as post-impressionist, later adopted as Brabants Fauvism.
At the beginning of his painter career in 1896 the artist did not seem to escape the academicism of his education at first. Until 1901 he confined himself mainly to portraits. This would change within a few years with his search for a better representation of light in which he developed a preference for interiors and still lifes; mostly painted with a painters’ knife (spatula), showing an abundant use of colour. By abandoning the use of the spatula in 1911, Wouters changed his style in order to obtain more transparency with diluted paint and the use of absorbing canvases.
Unfortunately, the period from 1914 until 1916 was marked by war, exile and illness. Wouters and his wife Nel were residing in Amsterdam at that time, and even though the artist's health was deteriorating quickly, he regained his will to paint. Executed in 1915, this work still testifies the visual experience of light and brightness. In 1916 Rik Wouters died at a young age.