Kees van Dongen is a unique master of portraiture who captivated the Parisian high society with the attractive images of his heroines.

Kees van Dongen was a famous Dutch painter of the 20th century, an outstanding representative of Fauvism. He was famous for painting portraits of spectacular women. Although he also created a lot of landscape compositions, still lifes and paintings of the animal genre. The best masterpieces of the master’s work are now kept in museums in Europe, and his biography is closely connected with Paris, where he lived for almost 50 years.

Kees van Dongen was deservedly considered a skilled illustrator, and his satirical drawings were readily published by French magazines of the first quarter of the last century. In addition, the artist received a steady income from the organization of paid costume balls for Parisian bohemia, which were in great demand in high society.

Biography

Kees van Dongen (real name – Cornelis Theodorus Maria van Dongen) was born on January 26, 1877 in a family of petty bourgeois in the small port town of Delfshaven (today it is part of Rotterdam). The boy showed early ability to draw, but his parents did not have money to pay for his son’s studies. Therefore, at the age of 14, Cornelis got a job in a trading shop, and two years later began attending evening classes at the Academy of Arts. Soon he met his future first wife, Augusta Preitinger, and the young people passionately fell in love with each other.

Having mastered the basics of painting, van Dongen left for Paris in 1897, but returned home a few months later due to a banal lack of money. For two years he lived with his parents, earning a living by selling urban landscapes, after which he again went to conquer the French capital.

By that time, Augusta had found a job for him as an illustrator in a magazine, immediately after van Dongen’s arrival, the lovers began to live together, and in the summer of 1901 they got married. The first marriage of the artist lasted 20 years, two children were born in it – a boy and a girl, but, unfortunately, the eldest son of the master died, having lived only a few days. But Dolly van Dongen loved his only daughter very much and spoiled him with expensive gifts all his life.

In Paris

In Paris, Cornelis met many young avant-garde artists, became interested in Fauvism and began to paint female portraits in a characteristic neo-impressionist manner. At the autumn salon of 1905, his paintings received high marks from critics, and from that moment the master gained fame as a fashionable contemporary artist. Then he slightly changed his name and began to sign all the works with the pseudonym Kees van Dongen. In addition, the painter officially announced his belonging to the creative association “Bridge”, although he had never been to Germany, where the founders of this famous group lived and worked.

In the summer of 1914, the artist and his family went to Rotterdam to visit his parents.

He planned to return to France in the autumn, but in August the First World War began and van Dongen had to stay in the Netherlands until it ended. After surviving the German occupation in Rotterdam, Kes was finally able to come to Paris in 1918. By that time, the master’s family life was completely upset, the couple cooled off towards each other. Their marriage turned into a formality, and in 1921 was officially annulled by mutual agreement.

Shortly after returning to France, Kes fell in love with another woman – socialite Leah Alvin, an affair with which lasted almost 10 years. A four-year absence from Paris had a positive effect on the popularity of the master. The metropolitan public gave him an enthusiastic reception, the artist was flooded with orders to paint portraits of ladies from high society. Van Dongen enthusiastically set to work, the heyday of his creative career began, which lasted until the outbreak of World War II.

The further life of the master proceeded in peace and prosperity. Even during the German occupation, van Dongen did not experience material problems, staying away from the political struggle and doing what he loved. In 1953, he married a second time to Marie-Claire Hugen, who bore him a son, and six years later the painter moved from the French capital to Monaco. Having lived a very long and interesting life, Kees van Dongen died in Monte Carlo on May 28, 1968.