This morning we were in Singer Laren for two beautiful exhibitions. One around Theo van Rysselberghe and one around Jan Sluijters and the modernists. The first is about the painter of the sun and an ode to one of the great Belgian masters in depicting light and color. Van Rysselberghe (1862 – 1926) is considered an important leader of pointillism, with which he inspired Dutch artists such as Jan Toorop (also with some works present). During one of his trips to Morocco in 1888, he literally and figuratively saw the light and started applying dots of unmixed paint with which he managed to express light and color in a sublime way. It is a beautiful exhibition where you sometimes gape at the splendor of colour, atmosphere and detail and the lack thereof. One performance is even more powerful than the other. From society portraits, sun-drenched landscapes from Flanders to Morocco, seascapes and the female nude. It is an ode to the beauty of life and to painting itself.
L'Arc en Ciel, 1893
The second exhibition was in the newest part of the museum: The Nardinc rooms and is organized around the donated art collection of Jaap and Els Blokker, with the leading role this time: Jan Sluijters (1881-1957). The collection consists of more than forty of his works and more than seventy works by contemporaries such as Jan Toorop, Leo Gestel, Piet van der Hem, Kees Maks, Kees van Dongen, Charley Toorop, Else Berg, Jo Koster, Charlotte van Pallandt, Dick Ket , Carel Willink and many others. The pleasure of painting, the bright colors and loose brush strokes decorate the canvases with subjects from Parisian life with swinging dancers, cubist scenes, odes to feminine beauty, colorful luminist landscapes, powerful portraits and colorful flower still lifes. All scenes painted from feeling, with bright colors and loose brush strokes and where the pleasure of painting radiates from the canvases. The collection of the Blokker family and now Singer Laren is a beautiful overview of the art of the modernists and a visit to the museum is a must for every Dutch art lover.
Kees Maks, Dansfeest met Sotomayor, ca.1927
Charley Toorop, Port de Villefranche, 1934
Leo Gestel, Zomerbloemen 1913