Inventory – Ubbens Art Advisory

Cristobal de Antonio (1862-1905)

Portrait of the painter Benjamin Liepman Prins (1860-1934)

Signed and dated A mon ami B.Prins Paris 1886

Oil on panel

20 x 16 cm

Between 1877-1882 Prins took lessons at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam with Prof. August Allebé
From 1882 to 1884 he left for Antwerp and was a pupil of Karel Verlat

The Spanish artist de Antonio and Benjamin Prins met in Paris in 1886 probably in the studio of the famous Ferdinand Cormon

There they both came acquainted with Vincent van Gogh who lived and worked in Paris at that time

The Goghmuseum owns a very sensitive oilsketch representing a young women, also dated 1886, by de Antonio
Van Gogh and Cristobal de Antonio swapped artworks when they’ve met in Paris in May-June 1886 (cf. website van Goghmuseum)

(SOLD to Jewish Museum, Amsterdam)

Kees van Dongen (1877-1968)

La Tulipe jaune; The yellow tulip

Signed, signed again and inscribed with title on the reverse

Oil on canvas

46.5 x 33 cm

To be dated circa 1925-26

This painting will be accompanied by both a certificate of authentification from the Institute Wildenstein, Paris, dated 19 october 1992, reference number 92.10.19.1312.25 and with a handwritten photo certificate by the daughter of the artist Dolly van Dongen (1905-1987)

Exhibited Laren, Singer Laren, geschilderde bloemen, 7 May-8 October 2019; Doesburg, Lalique museum, Art Nouveau en Japonisme, 17 May 2016-15 July 2017

(SOLD)

Jan van Essen (1854-1936)

A Heath Fire, het Loo, Apeldoorn

Signed and dated 1907

Oil on carton

26 x 33.5 cm

Provenance: Mr F.E.H. Groenman, May 1917

Frans Groenman (1883-1943) has been a Dutch Ambassador in Canada

He became one of the first contributors to the literary Magazine Onze Taal (Our Language)
A famous Dutch language prize was named after him

On the website of the Royal Collections (no 254, dec, 1907) one find a correspondence with the painter about executing a painting of a heath fire commissioned by Queen Wilhelmina

Piet van der Hem (1885-1961)

Circus Medrano, Paris

Signed and dated Paris 1907

Oil on canvas

38.5 x 61 cm

In 1907 van der Hem left for Paris. He rented a studio in Montmartre

In the French capital he mainly painted the Parisian demi-monde in cafe’s, theatres and on the streets

The Cirque Medrano (before Cirque Fenando), located at the foot of the hill of Montmartre, was a very popular subject for several artists

Degas, Renoir, Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec are known to have made numerous sketches, drawings and oils of the place

David Oyens (1842-1902)

De koetsier ('Au repos des cochers') - 1877

Gesigneerd en gedateerd 77 linksonder

Olieverf op paneel

33,5 x 26,5 cm

Herkomst: H.J. de Marez Oyens, Amsterdam (bankier en neef van de kunstenaar), verworven in 1883 G.H. de Marez Oyens, Amsterdam, 1955 (neef van H.J. de Marez Oyens) Particuliere collectie

Exposities: Brussel, Cercle Artistique et Littéraire, Exposition d'Oeuvres d'Art, 1877, nr.167 (‘Au repos des cochers’) Amsterdam, Kunstzalen der Maatschappij Arti et Amicitiae, Tentoonstelling Levende Meesters, oktober-november 1877, nr.393 (‘De koetsier’, prijs Nlg.400) Amsterdam, Museumplein, Internationale Koloniale en Uitvoerhandel-Tentoonstelling, 1883, nr.186 (‘De koetsier’) Amsterdam, Kunstzaal Panorama, Tentoonstelling Schilderijen en Teekeningen van de kunstschilders David en Pieter Oyens’, 1894, nr.16 (‘Achter de kachel’) Brussel, Cercle Artistique et Littéraire, Exposition Oyens, 21-30 oktober 1907, nr.77 (‘Le cocher’) Rotterdam, Kunsthandel Oldenzeel, Tentoonstelling werken door David en Pieter Oyens, november-december 1907, nr.38 (‘De koetsier’, niet te koop) ’s-Gravenhave, Kunsthandel J.J. Biesing, Tentoonstelling schilderijen van David en Pieter Oyens, februari 1908, nr.14 (‘De koetsier’, niet te koop) Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Tentoonstelling van schilderijen en aquarellen gekozen uit de verzamelingen van bestuurderen der Vereeniging tot het vormen van eene openbare verzameling van hedendaagsche kunst, 10 september-15 oktober, 1910, nr.65 (‘Het koetsiertje’, inzender H.J. de Marez Oyens) Den Haag, Gemeentemuseum, De gebroeders Oyens. David en Pieter Oyens. Een Nederlandse schilderstweeling in Brussel, 12 april-13 juli 2008 Sint-Joost-ten-Nolde, België, Charliermuseum, De gebroeders/Les jumeaux Oyens, 10 maart-30 mei 2010

Literatuur: V.D., ‘Exposition Cercle artistique de Bruxelles (Catalogue raisonné). Fin’, Journal des Beaux Arts et de la Littérature, nr.12, 30 juni 1877, p.95 Anoniem, ‘Tentoonstelling van Kunstwerken van Levende Meesters te Amsterdam. III’, Algemeen Handelsblad,14 oktober 1877 A.v.V. [Arie van Veen], ‘David en Pieter Oyens’, NRC (vermoedelijk), 29 november 1907 R. Jacobsen, ‘De Gebroeders Oyens’, Onze Kunst 7, nr.3, maart 1908. p.93. Mr. H.F.W. Jeltes, Notities 1936, p.10 (niet gepubliceerd, archief Mr. H.F.W. Jeltes, RKD Den Haag) Wim van Krimpen, Saskia de Bodt, Fred Hendriks, De gebroeders Oyens. David en Pieter Oyens. Een Nederlandse schilderstweeling in Brussel, Zwolle/Den Haag 2008, pp.104-105, afgebeeld

(RESERVED)

Aldo Pagliacci (1913-1991)

An Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church burial procession (probably the Simien Mountains region of North Ethiopia)

Oil on panel

55.5 x 42 cm

Exhibited: Georgetown, U.S.A., Obelisk Gallery, February 1958

The artist took part in the 1929/30 Venice Biennale when he was only 17 of age

In 1936 he left for Eritrea

Pagliacci is a real so-called traveller-painter

He lived and worked in a.o. Ethiopia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Holland

In february 1958 he exhibited about 18 works in the famous Oblisk Gallery in Georgetown

Some of these showcased an Ethiopean subject matter

The Gallery announcement of that time reads: “Aldo Pagliacci’s exquisite little paintings are a continuing delight, with their glowing colors, precise details and aura of surrealism”

(SOLD)

Léonard Sarluis (Dutch/French, 1874-1949)

The oeuvre of Sarluis ranks among the hidden treasures of European art around 1900. Although he was a celebrity during his lifetime, he remained, unjustly, a footnote in later art history. For the stuffy Netherlands, he was too rebellious, larger than life. Sarluis has, however, long been appreciated by collectors and connoisseurs. Unfortunately, museums are still falling behind: not a single Dutch museum holds any work by this important queer artist.

Thanks to the successful exhibition in Paris in March this year organised by galleries Caroline Thieffry and Mathieu Néouze, he is back in the spotlight. The catalogue ‘Singulier Symboliste’, featuring a detailed essay by symbolist scholar Sander Bink, is the first book dedicated to the artist.

Sarluis shifted effortlessly between a fascinating mystical symbolism and the exquisite elegance of Art Deco. He was himself very elegant. He was a dandy who was regularly spotted in The Hague in the 1890s, smartly dressed with a flower in his buttonhole. He mingled in the bohemian circles around the well-known dandy artist Carel de Nerée tot Babberich (1880-1909) from The Hague. Sarluis was good friends with Carels younger brother Frans (1882-1929), also an artist, who sometimes helped Sarluis in his studio.
When, from around 1895, he began spending more and more time in Paris and moved in artistic avant-garde circles, he became friends with the great dandy Oscar Wilde. Both artists were what we would now call ‘queer’ and, for that reason alone, easily shocked the bourgeoisie.

Our two paintings form part of a series of 300 drawings and paintings that Sarluis produced from around 1920 onwards, and which were exhibited in 1928 at the Grafton Gallery in London under the title ‘A Mystical Interpretation of the Bible’ with great succes. No one knows exactly which works the series comprised exactly. However, in 2025, a dummy book from 1928 turned up which was intended to contain the complete catalogue. Presumably due to a lack of funds, it was never completed: it contains a table of contents listing the 300 works and around fifteen illustrations. (See Bink’s text for the full story. We will send you a PDF of this on request.) Two of these appear to be variant drawings of the oil paintings on offer here.

Sarluis’s religiously themed paintings and drawings combine a deep knowledge of the Bible and a moody Old Master-inspired colour palette with a modern conception of art and spirituality in which the personal and subjective ultimately take precedence over tradition.

In Sarluis’s work, biblical figures are always people of flesh and blood, with all their suffering and all their beauty. This combination of suffering and beauty reveals Sarluis’s roots in the decadent movement of around 1900, when he came of age both personally and artistically.

This magnificent set of paintings are two missing pieces of the jigsaw in an almost legendary series of extraordinary works of art. When Sarluis exhibited in The Hague in early 1897, a critic noted that ‘At the foot of the painting [stand] two laurel wreaths from his admirers!’ It is time to laurel Sarluis once again!

Frans Stamkart (1874-1947)

Girl with a Pearl

Signed with initial

Oil on canvas

100 x 70 cm

Stamkart is a little known Dutch painter, draughtsman and designer working in Amsterdam in the early 20th century producing dream like imagery. His foremost mystical and occult are very rare and sought after. He seems to be influenced by for instance the symbolist artists like Odilon Redon and Gustave Moreau. Some of his drawings (Salome) and oils (de Avondgang) are in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the Kunstmuseum The Hague

Robert Verly (1901-1963)

Mother and child, D.R. Congo

Signed and dated 1958

Oil on canvas laid down on board

58.5 x 47.5 cm

In an original period African frame

Robert Verly was a Belgian administrator and painter in Congo in the 1950’s

He set up ateliers to preserve and pass on the craftmanship of the last surviving Congolese sculptors.  Verly wanted to protect the sculptors from external (Western, commercial) influences and stimulate the continued development of the indigenous art styles

His paintings are seldom appear on the market and are therefore very rare

Jan Hendrik Verstegen (1922-1993)

The napkin (with rabbit skull)

Signed with monogram and dated ’49

Oil on panel

20 x 24 cm

Literature: Nelleke Noordervliet a.o., Jan Hendrik Verstegen, Amsterdam 2012, p.131,number 024 (illustrated, and as whereabouts unknown), and p.170 (illustrated)

Most of his fascinating and intriguing works are still with the family of the artist, a few are with collectors

As far as we know only one is located in a museum: The tyranny of the steel helmets from 1947 is kept by the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam

Verstegen is a true Magical Realist in the arthistorical tradition of Carel Willink and Pyke Koch

(SOLD)