Schröder und Leisevitz Kunsthandel, Hamburg
Private Collection, Europe (acquired from the above in 1985 and sold: Christie's, London, July 1, 1999, lot 660)
Acquired at the above sale

Louis Chaumeil, Van Dongen, L'homme et l'artiste - La vie et l'oeuvre, Geneva, 1967, no. 110, illustrated pl. 110

This painting is in lovely condition. The canvas may have a thin linen backing, which does not appear to actually be a lining. The paint layer is stable and the canvas is well stretched. The canvas is cleaned and varnished. The only retouch appears to be in the vase, where a small spot of loss in the lower center has been retouched. There may also be a few small spots of retouching in the petals of the red dahlia in the center of the right side, but this color does fluoresce strongly in some cases. Regardless, the painting is in beautiful condition and should be hung in its current state. The above condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Kees van Dongen’s Le Bouquet de dahlias is an exuberant and carefully observed still life which references the artist’s interest in the contemporary Fauve movement and his awareness of the heritage he shared with his fellow Dutchman Vincent van Gogh. The present work was painted in 1908, a year marked by particular success for van Dongen. It was in 1908 that he had one-man exhibitions at Galerie Kahnweiler and Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. The year before he had spent a substantial amount of time in Holland where he “seems to have been commissioned by F. Fénéon to get van Gogh’s paintings together for an exhibition the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune was planning to organize in January 1908” (Marcel Giry, Fauvism, Origins and Development, New York, 1981, p. 224).

Van Gogh’s influence on the Fauves cannot be understated. “The Salon des Indépendents of 1905 was unusual in that this time, in addition to the work of living artists, it included two major retrospectives, one devoted to Georges Seurat and the other to Vincent van Gogh. There were forty-five works by Van Gogh in the show, including drawings from Matisse’s collection, and thirty-six paintings, predominately from Van Gogh’s French period… The tribute to Van Gogh was ‘timely,’ said the painter André Derain. ‘It was in the air, it was what we were doing. The Van Gogh exhibition authenticated colours and the ‘anarchic’ technique, liberated from all the conventions, explained the magazine La Plume, confirmed the general opinion that Neo-Impressionism as a method had had its day. Van Gogh’s painting demonstrated that its importance lay not in the process but in colour’s greater powers of expression” (Anita Hopmans, All Eyes on Kees van Dongen (exhibition catalogue), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2010-11, p. 23).

The use of floral still lifes as a vehicle for color experimentation also can be seen in the works of Henri Matisse (see fig. 2). In 1905 van Dongen showed his works not at the Salon d’Automne but rather at Galerie Druet in an exhibiton called A Season. Even at this point, the connection to van Gogh in van Dongen’s observation of nature was noted by the critics: “’These paintings, watercolours, and drawings demonstrate total originality and confirm Van Dongen’s reputation once and for all,’ wrote Alexandre in Le Figaro. Louis Vauxcelles, the eminent art critic for Gil Blas, wrote: ‘Today we have seen some of Mr. Kees van Dongen’s outdoor studies. Some are so truly beautiful that they establish more than any promises.’ And Charles Morice concluded: ‘He is so daring that it is tempting to mention in connection with his the greatest of names from Turner to Van Gogh’” (quoted in Nathalie Bondil & Jean-Michel Bouhours, eds., Van Dongen (exhibition catalogue), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal & Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco, 2008-09, p. 93).