Lot 1378: Dick Ket (Den Helder 1902-1940 Bennekom)

Self-portrait with a bread roll with inscription by the father of the artist 'Schets van Dick Ket' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 31 x 26 cm. (121/4 x 9 7/8 in.) Executed circa 1934-1937. PROVENANCE Estate of the artist. A gift from the parents of Dick Ket to J. van Booren - Ten Kate around 1943. Anonymous Sale; Christie's, Amsterdam, 26 27 May 1988, lot 165 (to Dreesmann). Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. C-185). LITERATURE W. J. de Gruyter and J. Mekking, Dick Ket 1902-1940, Wageningen 1962, no. 21. Alied Ottevanger, De wet der verevening: over de betekenis van een natuurkundige wet voor filosofie en het werk van Dick Ket, Jong Holland, 15, 1989. Alied Ottevanger, Dick Ket: vier studies, thesis, The Hague 1995, p. 42-43. Alied Ottevanger, Dick Ket over zijn leven, idee‰n en kunst, Zwolle 1994, p. 102, p. 103, p. 162, no. 117. EXHIBITION Arnhem, Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Dick Ket 1902-1940, 16 December 1962 - 17 February 1963, no. 21. NOTES The self-portrait is an important and recurrent genre in Dick Ket's oeuvre. Shortly after an exhibition held at Kunstzaal Van Lier in Amsterdam in January 1934, he embarked on a series of three small self-portraits with attributes, of which the present lot is one. He worked on them until 1937, but then decided to execute an almost identical series on coarser canvas, and left the original versions unfinished. The posters by Cassandre in the background of the first versions no longer appear in the second series. We know from Ket's correspondence that the idea for the three self-portraits took shape gradually. The self-portrait with a bread roll followed those with a paintbrush and with medicines, which he had conceived some time earlier. The self-portrait with a bread roll, which Ket also referred to as 'the eater', shows him with his head turned to the right and therefore belongs on the left of the triptych. Ket must initially have played with the idea of hanging it on the right, as he also made a version with his head inclined to the left (Alied Ottevanger, op. cit. cat. no. 116). Ket never completed the first versions, but hung them separately in his living room. They were never exhibited during his lifetime. The three later self-portraits (now at the Gemeentemuseum in Arnhem, cat. no. 132) were placed in a single frame. Though they are perhaps technically more proficient than the first series, Ket remained attached to their predecessors, which he felt had more 'warmth'. The second versions were never quite finished either, and remained unsigned. After the death of their son, Ket's parents presented the three paintings from the first series to friends and acquaintances. The self-portrait with a bread roll thus came into the possession of the Van Booren-Ten Kate family.