description

Raoul Hynckes (Brussels 1893 - Blaricum 1973)

signed l.r.: HYNCKES

Provenance

commissioned by John Wells van Beuningen (1880-1967), Zeist; thence by descent within the family

Detail Description

Together with Carel Willinck and Pyke Koch, Raoul Hynckes is considered one of the most important representatives of Magic Realism. Strictly speaking, he only adhered to that movement for fourteen years - from 1932 to 1946. His searched after vanitas and hunting still lifes, loaded with symbolism, go back to 17th-century examples and are praised for their highly wrought technique. Ernest Hemingway was an admirer of his work, as a still life by Hynckes adorned the wall opposite the writer’s bed in his Cuban house.



The painter-critic Albert Plasschaert wrote in 1938 that “a somewhat ominous melancholia” is detectable in Hynckes's work, which is often associated with the grim atmosphere of the years before and during the Second World War. The picture was commissioned by John Wells van Beuningen, an avid hunter, and remained in the family since.