Kees Van Dongen Dutch-French, 1877-1968

Kees van Dongen was a Dutch painter who trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam. His early works were primarily Impressionist in style.

He moved to Paris in 1897—specifically to Montmartre, the cradle of the era's artistic ferment. He settled in the Bateau-Lavoir, a legendary complex of artists' studios that housed some of the century's most influential creators, including Matisse, Braque, Derain, Dufy, Marie Laurencin, Modigliani, and Maurice Utrillo. At the top of the Rue Ravignan steps, van Dongen immersed himself fully in the artistic life of his time.

In Paris, he was influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec and the Art Nouveau painter and printmaker Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, as well as by Édouard Vuillard and Gauguin’s Synthetism. Van Gogh, meanwhile, inspired his understanding of the emotional value of color. He contributed to various satirical magazines popular at the time, such as L’Assiette au beurre and Le Rabelais. His first solo exhibition took place in 1904, organized by the renowned art dealer Ambroise Vollard. As early as 1902, with his Portrait de la Goulue—in which color replaced drawn structure—he anticipated Fauvism; Vlaminck and Derain would not produce their first Fauvist works until several years later.

At the Bateau-Lavoir, van Dongen became neighbors with the young Pablo Picasso. This marked the beginning of their friendship; at one point, they even shared a studio. During Picasso’s Rose Period, they would go to the circus together once a week to sketch. However, while Picasso painted in a melancholic vein, van Dongen remained humorous, lively, and joyful. In 1905, he exhibited at the Salon with the Fauves, a move that reinforced the fiery, sensual quality of his painting; in 1908, he also joined the German Expressionist group Die Brücke. Van Dongen holds a unique place among the artists of the School of Paris: unlike most of his fellow Fauves—who were French and painted landscapes in natural light—this Dutchman preferred interior scenes (theaters, circuses, cabarets) where electric light allowed for more intense contrast.

It is also worth noting that van Dongen’s style and palette are instantly recognizable. Indeed, he stands out among the Fauves as a master colorist; vigorous yet refined, he created novel color relationships born of extensive experimentation. His palette remained deliberately limited, relying primarily on green, red, and black.

His expressionism—vitalistic and almost biological, aggressive and direct—exerted a significant influence on the German Expressionist painters of Die Brücke. After a few early attempts at landscapes, van Dongen focused on portraiture, particularly of women; he explored the figure's bearing, the texture of the skin, and elongated necks, usually set against minimalist backgrounds. He himself described the female body as the "most beautiful landscape."

Van Dongen soon became the portraitist of choice for Tout-Paris—the city's fashionable elite. A witness to both the glory and the squalor of the Belle Époque, he made circus life, cabarets and dance halls, brazenly splendid nudes, and the worlds of power and money his signature themes. A highly sought-after society portraitist, he created a distinctive female archetype: heavily defined eyes, and provocative poses, finery, and jewelry. These figures have been described as women who were "half-salon prostitute, half-streetwalker princess." While these late works secured his renown in high society, most of them do not match the impact of his pre-1918 works.