Sjef van Schaijk - Liggend Naakt - Sold

Imposing work by Sjef van Schaijk from 1964 'Lying Nude' Signed in corner. On the back is title and year.

The Brabant artist Sjef van Schaijk (1901-1985) did not paint to please. His work served as an outlet for his personal experiences and emotions, in which he did not shy away from heavy themes, such as man and his struggle for existence and the mysteries of faith and life. Stylistically, his oeuvre shows great variations. He collaborated with artists such as Hendrik Wiegersma and Gerard Princée, with whom he also shared a studio for a while and made several study trips through Europe. Sjef van Schaijk was born in Ravenstein in 1901 into a poor family, which moved to Helmond in 1916. At the end of the 1920s, he took up painting at his own discretion, which he combined with unskilled work. He drew inspiration from his immediate surroundings, concentrating on depicting the hard life of farmers and workers. In addition, he painted still lifes and religious scenes in a sober realistic style, which shows influences of magical realism. His paintings, for example, show a relationship with the work of Wim Schumacher and Raoul Hynckes. Van Schaijk distinguished himself by his emphatic contour lines, unmodelled color areas, graceful lines and rich colours. Unlike many realistic contemporaries, Van Schaijk's early work does not so much reflect social criticism as kinship and resignation. During his study trips, Van Schaijk became acquainted with the work of the Belgian surrealists and expressionists, such as René Magritte, Paul Delvaux and Constant Permeke. From the 1950s, the influence of these painters translated into a surrealistic idiom. Disturbing dream images and sharply outlined, plastically designed fantasy figures stand out against desolate landscapes with a low horizon. After 1960 the figures become increasingly larger, until they almost seem to outgrow the picture plane. Concerning the theme, oppression also takes the upper hand, with nightmarish scenes in which man in a grotesque way surrenders to vices such as alcoholism and ambition. Van Schaijk also experimented with a more abstract expressionist style in soft pastel shades. In the 1970s he developed an idiom of whimsical human figures filled with wood structure, which populate his canvases like tree stumps that have come to life.