Tilly Moes (1899-1979) - Stilleven

Sofia Theodora van Driel was born in Düsseldorf on 25-9-1899, the daughter of Johannes Gerardus van Driel and Sophia Adriana van Lammeren. She lived with her parents in The Hague until her marriage in 1927, where she attended the Tekenacademie. In her pre-marital period (until 1927) she painted “antique” still lifes: intricate dark-looking pieces with a lot of fruit and flowers, under the pseudonym Tilly Moes. She also had a office job to support herself financially.

She married in The Hague on 1 September 1927 to the painter Nico Bruijnenstein, whom she had met at the Academy, and soon moved with him to Gooi. In the period up to 1939 they moved frequently. They mainly lived in Gooi and vicinity (Blaricum, Laren, Eemnes, Vreeland, Kortenhoef), but they also stayed in Driebergen, Overveen, Oisterwijk, Antwerp, and Ploiești (Romania).

After their marriage there had to be bread on the table, especially when in December 1931 their (only) son was born. They were proud that this was achieved solely with painting and that they also got through the entire crisis period of the 1930s without having to beg for government support. It was mainly Fia who earned the income with her work. Still under her old pseudonym Tilly Moes (she felt that this “breadwork” had too little quality to put her own name under it), she painted one flower still life after another. Especially sunflowers and poppies were a cash success. Nico traveled by train and tram with large bundles of paintings to sell them.

In The Hague the previously described serial production of Tilly-Moeses broke through completely. As a regular client, the name of the art dealer Veenendaal in Amsterdam is particularly known. Probably in that Hague period Fia also experimented briefly with painting with a knife. The result did not please her, however.

However, housing did not bring luck. After three years they had to move again because the German occupier wanted to demolish part of The Hague in connection with the construction of the Atlantikwall. They became boarders and subtenants again as before, this time in Zeist.

The success of the Tilly Moezen continued undaunted. The best customer was now Gazendam in Deventer, with a close second for Spitzers in The Hague. During a visit to family in The Hague, Fia sent her son to Firma Spitzers to deliver a parcel. On his return he could report that in Spitzers’ display window not only her Tilly-Moezen were visible, but also paintings with the same images but with a different signature. Fia already knew this phenomenon: she could not handle the demand, and thus others had the chance to jump in the gap. I later saw (mostly poor, sometimes caricatured) imitations of various kinds, with various signatures.

The name Tilly Moes was also borrowed for other productions. A certain H. Bellaard signed pastel drawings with Tilly Moes, and I also found the name under a linoleum cut by an unknown maker. Fia never used these techniques.

Of course life in The Hague and Zeist could not consist solely of Tilly-Moezen. Fia also made on a small scale finer flower still lifes under her own name Fia van Driel.

After Nico’s death in 1950, Fia faced the task of providing for a living on her own. Although her son (in turn a pupil, a soldier, and a student) took over the administrative burdens, it seemed that now the Tilly Moezen for Gazendam and Spitzers (which were thereafter sent by mail or by messenger) would be the only source of income.

But it turned out differently: Fia was not the type to travel to art dealers to recruit customers, as Nico had done. Yet the customers came to her. Probably due to rising general prosperity former clients, sometimes from a distant past, contacted her, usually unaware of Nico’s death. Willemsen in The Hague, noted by Nico as a new client shortly before his death, became an important buyer for a time.

Summer 1950 brought Fia a curious encounter: at Zeist station she ran into Heiman Rothschild. This Amsterdam art dealer had escaped the Holocaust by emigrating to America in time. During a visit to the Netherlands he had tracked Nico and, without knowing the exact address, wandered to Zeist on a whim. For a year and a half he was a good client, but his wild plans (he wanted exclusive sale, and wanted to move Fia to San Francisco) came to nothing. Suddenly he disappeared. Years later he turned up again from South America and bought a few more paintings as samples for a new hopeless project.

At the end of 1951 Outhuyse reappeared. Initially Fia tried to offer him the same cityscapes as Nico had delivered (but signed only Bruynesteyn or S.Bruynesteyn), later he became a buyer of her regular work.

Also at the end of 1951 her brother-in-law Fons Antheunissen became a good client. He had a shop aboard the Willem Ruys, the flagship of the Rotterdamsche Lloyd, and for (until 1960) displayed the little paintings in his display window. It mainly concerned initiations signed with S.B.

While Fia thus had no sales problems, and her son had a scholarship, life was by no means a bed of roses. The apparent reason was that, out of fear of losing her customers, she never dared to raise prices and kept them at nearly pre-war levels. In a price list from 1955 they ranged from 4 to 25, with an occasional outlier of 35. The list mentions categories: Flower still life; Antique flowers; Still life Cityscape; Landscape; Italian landscape; Farm interior; Old Dutch interior; Church interior.

In the following years the clientele changed: the old client Gazendam disappeared end of 1953, Spitzers from the till around early 1958. Gazendam returned for some time around 1963.

On the other hand, two other important clients emerged:
- Jacques Aa, a Jewish art dealer from Amsterdam, had survived the concentration camp and had emigrated to America after the war. He had changed his name to Jack Alden and had established an art business in New York (from 1968 in New Orleans). He too had followed Nico’s trail and found the right address in Zeist.
- The Listings Factory Verno (H.J. van den Noord) in Zwanenburg, which acted as an intermediary for an Australian buyer.

Alden from May 1958, together with Verno from January 1960, determined the full picture of Fia’s work.

The fact that the vast majority of her work after Nico’s death went abroad means that nothing is found on the Dutch market. I know nothing of the subjects (except for the vague indications on the above price list) or of the signatures used.

An exception to this is the work delivered to Alden, both because the complete correspondence with Alden has been preserved, and because a few paintings have been returned. To avoid one-sidedness in his business, Alden demanded a different pseudonym for each subject.

In total 1,369 paintings in 12½ years. Together with a still roughly half as large production for Verno, that is a considerable achievement. The prices were higher than before, ranging between 8 and 50 guilders.

In the period 1950–1970 she obviously also painted for private purposes. Notably: two portraits of Nico, a church interior for her own use, a seascape, and a flower still life for her sister Bertha’s wedding, three flower still lifes as gifts on various occasions, two family coat of arms.

When her son completed his studies in 1962 and obtained a position in Arnhem, she moved with him to Arnhem. After his marriage in 1971 she, together with her sister Nel, occupied a nursing home in the same city.

In August 1970 she stopped painting, partly because her eyes failed her. After an operation on both eyes in 1972 she was so delighted with the regained visual acuity that she painted one more good painting, for her son.

Shortly after her 80th birthday, on 7 October 1979, she passed away in the Municipal Hospital in Arnhem.

After Jack Alden’s death his art dealership was taken over by his son Michael and later sold. He, however, founded in 1972 in New Orleans another similar business: Michael Alden Associates, Inc.