Eugène Brands (1913-2002) - Zelfportret met palet

Artist: Eugenius Antonius Maria (Eugène) Brands (Amsterdam, January 15, 1913 - there, January 15, 2002)
Title: "painter - self-portrait with palette"
Year: 1963
Dimensions: 77 cm x 57 cm (sheet size) and 48 x 45 cm (image size)
Edition: 200 copies
Signature: Yes, handwritten in pencil
Technique: color lithography on paper
Framed: no / loose-leaf
Condition: In very good condition.

From archival documents in the RKD collection it appears that the artist’s career of Eugène Brands progressed smoothly. He writes to the art critic W. Jos. de Gruyter in 1952, thanking him for the fact that his painting Promenade in the Village, in part thanks to him, was sold at an exhibition in Pittsburgh. Galerie Nouvelles Images gave Brands ample opportunity in 1976 to show his new works, large canvases with abstracted colorful landscape patterns in which the black patches of cattle are notably incorporated. They date from the period when he moved to Hulshorst, near Nunspeet. In the large studio in the woods he experienced the silence of nature and the contact with the cosmos more intensely than in the city. A journalist from Het Parool noted during a visit to the artist in 1979: ‘Eugène Brands (66) has lived with his wife Toos since 1975 in Nunspeet. His house is well hidden among the woods, barely accessible to cars. In the living room a large painting of himself, a few incredibly beautiful pieces of so-called primitive peoples, and an impressive collection of gramophone records.’ In 1999 Brands moved into a studio in southern France and gave up his residence in Hulshorst. In 2002 he died, however, in his birth city Amsterdam, quite remarkably on his birthday. Brands did not believe in coincidence, but saw meaning everywhere, as he explained from a young age.