Hans Bayens (1924-2003) - Schilders Atelier

This concerns a very artistic painting by the Belgium-born artist Hans Bayens. The fluid brushwork, the color palette... a wonderful and timeless work by this sought-after artist.
The dimensions without the frame are 60 cm x 70 cm.
The work is signed in the lower right and is in good condition.
The frame is included free of charge.
A beautiful painting that fits into any interior.
Bayens was born in Belgium as the son of the Dutch artists Han Bayens and Elisabeth Polak, but grew up in Amsterdam. Here he took his final exams at the Barlaeus Gymnasium. An important aspect was his literary formation for his later work. From 1946 to 1949 he stayed in Antwerp, where he received his training as a painter and sculptor at the National Higher Institute for Fine Arts. His masters included, among others, Opsomer, Saverys, De Coninck, Van Vlasselaer (monumental arts) and Puvrez.

After his studies he left with a grant from Maison Descartes to Paris, where he could occupy a studio in the Manufacture des Gobelins. There he learned to design cartoons for wall tapestries, and he also copied, among others, the old masters in the Louvre. After another internship in Aubusson (with Lurçat) he ended this period, then spent a few more months in the famous Borinage mining region. Van Gogh and Israëls had preceded him here.[3]

When he eventually settled back in Amsterdam around 1950-1951, a difficult period began at first; he had to search for his own form, style, and identity. The country had to be rebuilt (the postwar reconstruction period) and abstract art was on the rise. After commissions for wall paintings (Marcanti Market Hall, 1953), (Wilton-Fijenoord, 1954) and the IJsselcentrale, 1955), as well as for some wall tapestries (including for the Staatsmijnen, now DSM) and a sgraffito for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (1955), what most suited him—the making of oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, and drawings, in alternation with sculpting—became his main form. And he managed to become successful.[4] Positive reviews contributed to this. For example, Redeker described Bayens in the Algemeen Handelsblad as a representative of an “Antwerp school” with “real, living, inspired and broadly engaged painting, together with a rich and sensitive colorism,” and Engelman praised in De Tijd his “spontaneous, competent and sensitive painterly manner.”[5]

His work is often characterized as impressionistic but also psychologically expressive.[6] Another characterization of his style is late or post-impressionistic.[7] Examples included Constable, Breitner, Goya, Turner, Vuillard, and also double talents such as Degas and Rik Wouters.[4] Subjects increasingly included people from his own surroundings, as well as landscapes and interiors. Thus arose series of drawings and works in oil, pastel, and watercolor of, for example, the circus, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the antiquarian bookshop, the Big Visit (hospital series) and the Yugoslav Tribunal.

In addition, he regularly undertook painting trips to England (Brighton and Constable Country), France (l’Oise) and Belgium. He painted portraits of friends and colleagues such as Geert van Oorschot, Harry op de Laak, Kees Verwey, but also Willem Drees, Wim Kan, Maurits van Loon, Eugen Jochum, Arend Jan Dunning and Thérèse Cornips. As a sculptor he became best known for the bronzes of beloved figures from Dutch literature—Multatuli, Theo Thijssen, Nescio’s Titaantjes, Gorter, Thorbecke, and Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken. His work is exhibited in many museums and galleries in the Netherlands and abroad and is represented in the collections of private individuals, museums, and government agencies both domestically and internationally."