keuraankunst

Otto van Rees
Freiburg (Duitsland) 1884-1957 Utrecht
A still life, oil on canvas 41 x 33 cm., signed l.l. and painted between ca. 1916-1917

Provenance: dichter-journalist Jan Engelman (1900-1972), Amsterdam; coll. mevrouw C.L. Verwey, Amsterdam, 2003; collectie Thijs Rinsema.
Literature: tent.cat. Utrecht, Centraal Museum, 'Beitel en Palet. 150 jaar Genootschap Kunstliefde', 1957, cat.nr. 125 en afb. 9; vgl: Willem Enzinck e.a., 'Otto en Adya van Rees. Leven en werk tot 1934', Utrecht 1975, pag. 83, afb. pag. 91; vlg. Egbert en Sjoerd van Faassen e.a., 'Otto van Rees', Zwolle/De Bilt 2005, pag. 242, afb. 256, pag. 304, cat.nr. 88.

In the early 20th century, Otto van Rees mixed in international modernist circles (the Fauves, Cubists and Dadaists) and collaborated with avant-garde artists like Jan Toorop, Kees van Dongen and Jean Arp. In 1904, when he was twenty, he left for Paris and rented a space in the notorious studio building Bateau-Lavoir, where he met Braque and Picasso. Around 1910 the influence of French Cubism is evident in the abstract stylisation of his paintings and experimental collages. After 1920 Van Rees focused on painting portraits and French landscapes in a more figurative and dreamlike style.