Albany Fine Art : Biography of Kees VAN DONGEN

Kees VAN DONGEN

Dutch, 1877-1968

Self Portrait 1906

One of the founders of Fauvism, best known for his figurative work which he depicted with distinctive style and verve

Born in Delfshaven near Rotterdam in 1877, Cornelis Theodores Marie (Kees) van Dongen is best known for his nudes, portraits, and landscapes painted and one of the founders of Fauvism. Van Dongen studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Rotterdam (1894-1898), where he studied drawing, though he did not finish his studies, choosing instead to earn his living illustrating for magazine and popular periodicals for several years.

His early paintings used a dark palette inspired by Rembrandt, who remained an important model for his work. In the mid-1890s van Dongen began employing much brighter colours and a sketchy style that anticipated Fauvism.

In 1897 he made his first visit to Paris, where he lived in the studio-house in which Pablo Picasso later rented a room, where he earned a precarious living, sketching people in the streets and doing other small jobs. He met some of the radical painters and writers of the time, including Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954), and attracted the notice of Félix Fénéon, the art critic and anarchist, who was a friend of Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891), Paul Signac (French, 1863-1935), and Camille Pissarro (French, 1830-1903). He also began illustrating for French newspapers and journals.

In 1899 van Dongen settled permanently in Paris where he continued to produce illustrations for various publications whilst developing his characteristic style: rich, vivid colours, heavy brushwork, simplified forms and bold outlines.

In 1903 Fénéon invited him to illustrate for the magasine of which he was then editor, Revue Blanche, where he met André Derain (French, 1880-1954) and Maurice de Vlaminck (French, 1876-1958), and, through them Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973). In 1903 he showed his work at the Salon d’Automne and, in 1904, at Le Salon Independente. His style identified him as a Fauvist and he was invited to exhibit with the Fauves in their famous exhibition of the following year. His paintings of women, dancers and nudes portrayed in simplified forms and emotional distortions were used to express his passionate involvement with the Parisian demi-monde.

In 1904 he was taken on by Ambroise Vollard, the pioneer dealer, patron, and publisher who played a key role in promoting and shaping the careers of many of the leading artists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906), Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903), Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890), Aristide Maillol (French, 1861-1944), Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973), Georges Rouault (French, 1871-1958), Raoul Dufy (French, 1877-1953) and many others.

In 1906 he moved into the Bateau Lavoire, where Picasso lived. In 1908, he was invited to join the German Expressionist group Die Brucke. His Expressionist portraits were extremely popular throughout continental Europe through the war years. At the end of World War I, van Dongen was discovered by the upper classes, who commissioned him to paint many celebrity portraits, which made him a chronicler of 1920s and 1930s society. He remained an important Parisian painter for many years, appreciated especially for his portraits. He subsequently moved to Monte Carlo where he died in 1968.