Dolf Breetvelt - Gouache : Abstract composition - Sold

Gouache by Dolf Breetvelt. Abstract composition. Dimensions incl frame: H74 x w64cm. Dimensions image: H60 x w50cm
The work is monogrammed "B" in pen and ink, lower right, by the artist. The authenticity of the work offered can be fully guaranteed. A certificate of authenticity can be emailed upon request.

Passe-partout/frames: Damage to frames is not described. If a work is framed behind glass and the glass is broken, this will be mentioned. Reflection may be visible in photos of framed works.

Upon purchase, the work can be picked up in 's-Gravenzande (near The Hague (Scheveningen), Rotterdam and Delft and 5 minutes from the beach). The period for collection, with advance payment, is very generous, i.e. the buyer can collect the work weeks or even months later and, if possible, combine it with a visit to one of the above-mentioned cities or the beach. We can also send the work by courier (Swift).

Visual artist Dolf Breetvelt (Delft, 31 December 1892 – Amstelveen, 20 May 1975, official first name: Adolf, hence signatures as ABr and A.Breetvelt) was the eldest son of pottery painter Henri Breetvelt. At the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague he obtained his MO drawing certificate in 1913.

In 1920 he went to the Dutch East Indies and became a drawing teacher in Batavia, Surabaya and Djokjakarta. In his spare time he painted, especially in Bali. He followed the new European art movements closely: realism, expressionism, surrealism and New Objectivity can be identified in his work from this period. He was considered one of the leading modern painters in the East Indies, in the same breath as Piet Ouborg, Jan Frank Niemantsverdriet and Walter Spies.

Breetvelt took early retirement in 1937 and returned to the Netherlands. From 1938 onwards he lived in Amsterdam. In 1948 he met the artist Corina Smit (1918-2003), with whom he had a daughter. In 1949 he exhibited completely abstract work for the first time. In the same year he joined the abstract painting artists' group Vrij Beelden, which merged into the Liga Nieuw Beelden in 1955. He almost always participated in their annual group exhibitions, first in the Amsterdam Museum Fodor, later in the new wing of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In addition to oil paintings he mainly made gouaches. In 1951 Breetvelt also started making abstract sculptures. He worked on them in the studio of his artist friend Hans Ittmann.

In the Amsterdam art world, Dolf Breetvelt was a well-known figure. For many years, from 1952 to 1969, he was on the Committee that assessed the submitted work for the Visual Artists Regulation. In 1963, Breetvelt had a one-man exhibition in Museum Fodor and in 2008 in Museum Nusantara, Delft.