Karel van Veenartist • painterRotterdam 1898-1988

Karel van Veen was a celebrated court and society painter in our country in the 1950s and 1960s. This provided him with a good income, eliminating the need to exhibit or sell his free work. The painter was educated at the academy of Rotterdam (1917-1921), then studied for some time in Paris, lived in Veere and finally settled in Rotterdam again. In the paintings he made afterwards, he drew on his travel experiences, such as scenes of Italian beauties on a Dutch quay. Van Veen solved this by giving the whole the appearance of a circus or fairground performance. He also made statues and dolls, which in turn figure in his paintings.