The Nude With The Spanish Shawl

It's quite a discovery. It lets us discover the master work of an artist of the end of the last century, till now undervalued in the history of art, but also a biography that reads like a film script. Kees Van Dongen (Rotterdam 1877-1968) was one of the best known artists of Paris between the wars. but his fame and prestige rapidly fell, to the point that up to now, with the exhibition till September in the Museum Picasso of Barcelona, there had not been any other exhibition of his work in Spain.

He was Picasso's neighbour of the studio, between 1906-1909. At that time Dongen was a passionate anarchist that only just began able to live on his paintings (in his beginnings he was dedicated to doing illustration graphics in satires in the newspapers), in which predominated themes of prostitutes, circus artists, landscapes and portraits. His more notable work though were of women, often nude with provocative postures. He just began too about then the bolder and more colourful technique and style. The exhibition now centres mostly on this period, organized chronically with special emphasis in his latter vanguard styles.

His travels through Spain to Morocco in 1910-1911 opened up for him a new era, but that didn't influence him as much as his contact with the marchioness Luisa Casati, who introduced him to the high society in which he circulated contentedly. It's period of cocktails and parties often in his studio, where his colours culminated and the feminine figures are brought up into the same class as his clients. Still quite successful and with certain fame, but the quality of his work fell and his later days suffered the consequences.

This painting is titled: 'The Spanish Shawl'. I have the feeling that the shawl would be seen more as the background than the subject.

Tags:shawl,nude

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