Otto van Rees artwork • watercolour • drawing • for sale Composition with torso
Otto van Rees
Freiburg (Duitsland) 1884-1957 Utrecht
1884-1957
Composition with torso
chalk and watercolour on paper 17.5 x 11.5 cm, painted ca. 1949
This work on paper is for sale.
price range: up to 2,500
At the beginning of the 20th century, Otto van Rees was in circles of the international modernists (Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism) and worked with avant-gardists such as Jan Toorop, Kees van Dongen and Jean Arp. In 1904, at the age of twenty, he left for Paris and rented a space in the illustrious Bateau-Lavoir studio building, where he met Braque and Picasso. Around 1910, the influence of French cubism becomes visible in the abstract styling of his paintings and experimental collages. In 1933 Van Rees returned for good and settled in Utrecht. There he became good friends with Gérard Grassère. When he died in a traffic accident in 1957, Grassère was partially assigned the care of the legacy. He moved into Van Rees 'home and studio at Bouwstraat 45. It is known that he provided Van Rees' work there with the monogram VR. Presumably this is also the case here. This watercolor is a preliminary study from a series for the painting 'Torso and house', 1949.