Harry Lips (1918-1979) - Onbekend (Maastricht?)

After his birthplace Rotterdam was largely destroyed by the bombing of 1940, Harry Lips (Rotterdam 1918 – Maastricht 1979) moved to Maastricht. Together with two Rotterdam friends, Henk Sitskoorn and Jan Vink, he took over a studio there. In 1942 he settled permanently in Maastricht. He builds his life there and paints the city, the people, his studio, his family, himself and he works on commissions.

In Maastricht Harry Lips comes into contact with the artists there. He undergoes some influence from Charles Eyck, whom he admires and continues to follow. His use of color becomes lighter and his painting style becomes more direct, especially in his landscapes. In Rotterdam he meets the artist Kees van Dongen in 1949. Traces of his later work can be found in portraits of Harry Lips.

In the fifties he regularly travels to Provence in the South of France to paint the landscape there. In Spain he paints the fishing life; the water and the boats continue to fascinate the Rotterdam-born painter. Later followed trips to, among others, Egypt and the Spanish desert area of Abanilla. The entire oeuvre testifies to a zest for painting. His intense perception of light and dark, of color and form, he captures in painting.