815. Kees van Dongen (1877-1968),

Dutch, Woman in a Black Hat, 1908.

Oil on canvas, 100 x 81.5 cm. The State

Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Fauvism.

 

 

Woman in a Black Hat was a continuation, as it were, of van Dongen’s reflections on beauty. This is one more aspect of that reflection. It is that splendid image which in van Dongen’s words is not a photograph of life but belongs to the realm of the daydream. The wide-brimmed hat and green raincoat give the model a timeless character, taking us away from the sphere of observed life. The slightly vibrant background is radiant, the contours softened. The mass of green, just like the large black patch of the hat, are present on the canvas so as to cause the warm pink tones of the face with its huge dark eyes to light up tenderly. It is precisely at this time that the foundations were laid for that idealisation which society people expected when commissioning a portrait from van Dongen.