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ZITTEND NAAKT VOOR EEN SPIEGEL

76 by 69 cm.

signed

oil on canvas

Painted circa 1925.

The present lot will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artists work, currently being prepared by the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), The Hague

PROVENANCE

Dr. Stephan Sturkop, Amsterdam
Thence by descent to the present owner

NOTE

During the exhibition Mondrian, Sluijters, Spoor at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1909, Jan Sluijters meets Greet van Kooten, an encounter which changed his personal and artistic life drastically. In 1913 the two get married. Greet becomes his muse and most often portrayed female. The couple moves to the south of Amsterdam, where they meet Stephan Sturkop, a doctor and great art lover with many artist friends like Mommy Schwarz, Else Berg, Simon Maris and Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig. Jan Sluijters portrayed Sturkop, who bought the present lot from him at the time.

Around 1920, Jan Sluijters leaves the wild and experimental years behind him and finds his final painting idiom. His reputation as a mature artist grows and during the 1920's and 30's Sluijters becomes one of the best known and appreciated artists of the Netherlands.
Zittend naakt voor een spiegel, is painted during these mature years, the second half of the 1920's. Sluijters chose to depict his beloved Greet from behind, a viewpoint he worked with before, in Paris 1906 and Amsterdam 1917. With a minimum of detail and a soft grey, blue and green colour scheme, Sluijters fills most of the composition with Greets beautiful stylized body. The use of colour and manner of painting relates to the work of his appreciated colleague Kees van Dongen. Like van Dongen, Sluijters slightly lengthens the round curving back of the depicted lady which results in an elegant pose and an impressive image of the female beauty. A comparable stunning work is to be found in the collection of the Centraal Museum in Utrecht.