Kees Van Dongen : Illustrator

We have the pleasure to present to you two new works by Fauvist painter Kees Van Dongen - both rare originals that served as models for the illustrations of books : Proust's mythical "In  Search of Lost Time" and Roland Dorgelès' vivid portrait of artistic bohemia "Au Beau Temps de la Butte". 

 

Kees Van Dongen is undoubtedly one of the most keen witnesses of his time. A founding member of Fauvism, who exhibited at the "Cage aux fauves" in 1905, one of the "painters of Montmartre", an anarchist, a mondain depicting the high-life of Parisian and Italian society in the 1920s as well as the artistic and literary Bohemia.

A lesser known astect of his work is however his oeuvre as an illustrator. Kees Van Dongen, with his keen sense of colour, will give illustrations for several of the most beautiful editions of the 1920s to 1950s: his illustrations for Rudyard Kipling represent some of his earliest forays into the medium, which will continue with literature classics such as the "One Thousand and One Nights" (Gallimard, 1955) or Proust's "À La Recherche du Temps Perdu" (Gallimard, 1947). The medium itself poses new questions : how does art come illustrate an episode in writing? Which scene to chose? In what way?

 

Without a doubt, his commission by Gallimard in 1946 for the illustrations of Proust's magnum opus is by far the most exacting. Proust, one of the greatest aesthetes of the 20th century, talks about modern painting - and even the idea of book illustration in the very book Van Dongen is meant to illustrate. The works Van Dongen creates for the "In Search of Lost Time" are a perfect example of his mastery of colour - as well as his deep knowledge of Parisian Society in the early 20th century, with its glitz and glamour. In these works, Van Dongen manages to perfectly illustrate Proust's societal frescoe, its beauty as well as its sensuality and decadence.

 

The illustrations Van Dongen creates for Dorgelès' memoirs "Au Beau Temps de la Butte" give an insight into a completely different society : that of Montmartre's artistic Bohemia in the early 1900s, of which Van Dongen was a member himself. The books is tinged with nostalgia for a lost world, as well as an autobiographical penchant - in "Van Dongen fait son marché", the artist represents himself as when he was young, in his day to day life.

 

We are happy to present in parallel two original gouaches that served for the illustrated edition - a point of reunion of both literary and artistic history.