Lot 1377: Pyke Koch (Beek 1901-1991 Wassenaar)

Dode jongen tempera on canvas laid down on panel 35.5 x 38 cm. (14 x 15 in.) Executed in 1936. PROVENANCE A. Bloembergen, Bilthoven. Anonymous Sale; Christie's, Amsterdam, 23 May 1989, lot 183 (to Dreesmann). Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. C-191). LITERATURE Jan Engelman, Pyke Koch, Amsterdam 1941, p. 33. Carel Blotkamp, Pyke Koch, Amsterdam 1972, p. 163. Catalogue of exhibition, Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Pyke Koch Schilderijen en Tekeningen, 1995, p. 52, illustrated, p. 79, no. 28, illustrated. EXHIBITION Paris, Institut N‚erlandais, Pyke Koch, 14 October 28 November 1982, no. 14. Arnhem, Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Pyke Koch, 11 December 1982 16 January 1983, no. 14. Lieges, Mus‚e d'Art Moderne, Pyke Koch, 28 January 14 March 1983. Paris, Mus‚e d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, La beaut‚ exacte de Van Gogh et Mondrian - Art Pays-Bas-XXe siŠcle, 1994, no. 64. Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Pyke Koch, schilderijen en tekeningen, 26 February 14 May 1995, no. 28. Lausanne, Mus‚e des Beaux Arts, Pyke Koch, R‚alisme magique aux Pays-Bas, 18 June 27 August 1995, cat. no. 17, p. 57. NOTES The dead boy depicted in the present lot was a son of the eldest sister of Koch who died of tuberculoses. Until recently Koch did not want this painting to be illustrated or exhibited. It was exhibited for the first time in solo exhibitions in France and Belgium in 1982. As Carel Blotkamp pointed out in the catalogue, the picture is a posthumous portrait painted from a photograph..' Although, in terms of subject matter, the portrait is unique in Koch's oeuvre, it relates in certain ways to some of his other works, notably the self portraits, which he painted during the same years. The head is totally isolated and very plastic, almost like a relief on a coin, rendered against a monochrome background; there is no spacial or atmospheric relationship between the two. All attention is drawn to the expression of the face'... (Blotkamp, op. cit, p. 52) See for a preliminairy drawing of the same subject: catalogue of exhibition, Pyke Koch, Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1995, no. 134.