Otto van Rees artwork • painting • previously for sale Self-portrait with palette
Otto van Rees
Freiburg (Duitsland) 1884-1957 Utrecht
1884-1957
Self-portrait with palette
oil on canvas 75.2 x 60.0 cm, signed u.r. (twice) and dated '40
This painting was previously for sale.
Provenance: coll. J. Romijn; coll. fam. van der Valk, Utrecht; veiling Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 4 juni 1996, lotnr. 21; part. coll. Nederland.
Literature: Hestia Bavelaar, e.a., 'Otto van Rees', Zwolle, 2005, pag. 321, cat.nr. 253 (met afb.).
Exhibited: Utrecht, Genootschap Kunstliefde, 'Tentoonstelling van werken van Otto van Rees en Cephas Stauthamer', 25 mei-16 juni 1940; Utrecht, Kunstzaal Wagenaar, 'Otto van Rees, L. de Lerma en H. de Groot', 31 okt.-14 nov. 1942; Tilburg, Paleis-Raadhuis, 'Schilderijen en Tekeningen Otto van Rees 1884-1957', 26 aug.-10 sep. 1961.
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.
© Simonis & Buunk
