71 - Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954)

Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954) Towing boats in front of Manhattan, New York,signed and dated 'Adriaan Lubbers/Jan. 1942' (lower right),oil on board, 46x54 cm,Exhibited:-Laren, Singer Museum, ‘Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954), tussen Nederland en New York', 28 November 1999-20 February 2000, no. 40, as: ‘Sleepboten voor Manhattan’ (label attached to the reverse).Literature:-Ann Blokland, ‘Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954), tussen Nederland en New York’, Laren 1999, p. 66.Provenance:-Collection Ms C. Kessler, Baarn.During the Second World War, Lubbers remained in the Netherlands. Each month, he cycled from Laren to Amsterdam to collect money for the artists of the Gooi region at the resistance headquarters. When the risk of being betrayed became too great, he went into hiding in the Achterhoek, where relatives on his father’s side lived.Despite his involvement in the resistance, Lubbers continued to paint throughout the war years, producing a considerable number of works. The Dutch landscape was a frequent subject, largely because his circumstances left him little opportunity to work elsewhere. Alongside these landscapes, he also continued to paint views of New York, the city that had occupied a prominent place in his work since the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. Unable to travel, Lubbers now painted the city from memory.Although Towing boats in front of Manhattan draws on compositions from his earlier New York paintings, it possesses a distinctly softer character. The water, rendered in delicate turquoise tones, has become the dominant element, assuming the role of nature within the composition. The city itself has receded into the background, diminishing the sense of the metropolis’s overwhelming presence.