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Kees van Dongen

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Cornelis Theodorus Maria "Kees" van Dongen (26 January 1877 – 28 May 1968) was a Dutch-French painter who was one of the leading Fauves.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Van Dongen's early work was influenced by the Hague School and symbolism and it evolved gradually into a rough pointillist style. From 1905 onwards – when he took part at the controversial 1905 Salon d'Automne exhibition – his style became more and more radical in its use of form and colour. The paintings he made in the period of 1905–1910 are considered by some to be his most important works.<ref>Collins, John (2009) Kees van Dongen. Monaco, Montreal and Barcelona, in: 'The Burlington Magazine': Vol. 151, No. 1273, Art in Britain (Apr., 2009), pp. 271-272.</ref> The themes of his work from that period are predominantly centered on the nightlife. He painted dancers, singers, masquerades, and theatre. Van Dongen gained a reputation for his sensuous – at times garish – portraits, especially of women.

Life and work

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Kees van Dongen was born in Delfshaven, then on the outskirts, and today a borough, of Rotterdam. He was the second of four children in a middle-class family.<ref name="clement" /> In 1892, at age 16, Kees van Dongen started his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam, working with J. Striening and J.G. Heyberg.<ref name="clement">Russell T. Clement, Les Fauves: A Sourcebook, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994, pp. 467-468, 471, accessed 1 February 2013</ref> During this period (1892–97), Van Dongen frequented the Red Quarter seaport area, where he drew scenes of sailors and prostitutes. He met Augusta Preitinger at the Academy, a fellow painter.

File:Dongen-Hat.jpg
Woman with Large Hat (Femme au grand chapeau), 1906, oil on canvas, Template:Convert

In 1897, Van Dongen lived in Paris for several months, where there was a large emigre community. In December 1899, he returned from Rotterdam to Paris, where Preitinger had moved before him and found work.<ref name="clement" />

Marriage and family

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He returned to join Augusta Preitinger ("Guus"), whom he had met at the Academy. They married on 11 July 1901. They had two children together: a son died a couple of days after birth in December 1901; their daughter Augusta, called "Dolly", was born 18 April 1905. Around that time, Van Dongen produced a painting of Fernande Olivier, which was the reason why — according to Gertrude Stein in her 1933 book The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas — he broke into notoriety. Apparently, according to Stein: Template:Blockquote

Guus took Dolly to see their families in Rotterdam in the summer of 1914, where they were caught by the outbreak of World War I. They were not able to return to Paris until 1918. Preitinger and Van Dongen divorced in 1921.<ref name=rkd>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1917, Van Dongen had become involved with a married socialite, the fashion director Léa Alvin, also known as Jasmy Jacob. Their relationship lasted until 1927.<ref>Clement (1994), p. 470</ref>

Career

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File:Kees van Dongen, c.1907-08, Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm.jpg
Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (Portrait de Kahnweiler), c. 1907–08, oil on canvas, Template:Convert, Musée du Petit Palais, Geneva
File:Tentoonstelling Kees van Dongen.ogv
Kees van Dongen exhibition at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in 1967

Van Dongen began to exhibit in Paris, and participated in the controversial 1905 Salon d'Automne exhibition<ref>Jones, Jonathan. Torso, also known as The Idol, Kees van Dongen (1905)", The Guardian, 19 October 2002. Retrieved 9 January 2009.</ref> along with Henri Matisse, André Derain, Albert Marquet, Maurice de Vlaminck, Charles Camoin, and Jean Puy. The bright colours of this group of artists led to them being called Fauves ('Wild Beasts') by art critic Louis Vauxcelles.<ref name="Gil Blas, 17 October 1905">Louis Vauxcelles, Le Salon d'Automne, Gil Blas, 17 October 1905. Screen 5 and 6. Gallica, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Template:ISSN</ref> Van Dongen was also briefly a member of the German Expressionist group Die Brücke.

In these years, he was part of an avant-garde wave of painters, including Maurice de Vlaminck, Othon Friesz, Henri Rousseau, Robert Delaunay, Albert Marquet, Édouard Vuillard, who aspired to a renewal of painting which they thought was stuck in neo-impressionism.

In 1906, Preitinger and Van Dongen moved to the Bateau Lavoir at 13 rue Ravignan in Montmartre, where they were friends with the circle surrounding Pablo Picasso and his girlfriend Fernande Olivier.<ref name="ebooks.adelaide.edu.au">Stein, Gertrude. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas , Chapter 2.</ref> He taught at the Académie Vitti in 1912.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

In addition to selling his paintings, Van Dongen also gained an income by selling satirical sketches to the newspaper Revue Blanche. He also organised very successful costume balls in Montparnasse, to which people paid admission, to gain extra income.

After the First World War, under the influence of his companion, the fashion director Lea Alvin (Jasmy Jacob), among others, Van Dongen developed the lush colours of his Fauvist style. This earned him a solid reputation with the French bourgeoisie and upper class, where he was in demand for his portraits. As a fashionable portraitist, he was commissioned for subjects including Arletty, Louis Barthou, Sacha Guitry, Leopold III of Belgium, Anna de Noailles, Madame Grès and Maurice Chevalier.

With a playful cynicism he remarked of his popularity as a portraitist with high society women, "The essential thing is to elongate the women and especially to make them slim. After that it just remains to enlarge their jewels. They are ravished."<ref name="MNAM">Dossier pédagogique, Service culturel, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Mars 2011</ref> This remark is reminiscent of another of his sayings: "Painting is the most beautiful of lies".<ref name="MNAM" />

In 1957, Kay Thompson featured one of his paintings in her book Eloise in Paris.

The social and commercial appeal of his later work (such as a 1959 portrait of Brigitte Bardot in a little black dress, with her hair tousled) did not match the artistic promise or the bohemian eroticism of his first three decades of work.<ref>A Lively Link to the 'Wild Beasts', van Dongen recalls spirited era, LIFE magazine, Vol. 48, No. 5, Published by Time Inc., 8 Feb 1960, Template:ISSN</ref>

From 1959, Kees van Dongen lived in Monaco. He died in his home in Monte Carlo in 1968.<ref>Clement (1994), p. 466</ref> An extensive collection of van Dongen's work is held by the New National Museum of Monaco.<ref name='NNMM2'>Template:Cite web</ref> His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Selected works

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Honours

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  • 1926, Knight of the Legion of Honour<ref name="Léonore" />
  • 1927, Order of the Crown of Belgium<ref name="clement" />
  • 1929, the French government awarded him citizenship<ref name="Léonore" />
  • 1954, Officer of the Legion of Honour<ref name="Léonore" />

References and sources

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References

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Sources

Further reading

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