414 - Lodewijk Schelfhout

Lodewijk Schelfhout 1881 The Hague – 1943 Amstelveen – Cubist Landscape – (1913) Oil on canvas. 63.2 x 53.2 cm. 69 x 59 cm (dimensions including frame). Signed and dated lower left: L. Schelfhout / 1913. Two old paper labels on the reverse. Framed. Minor dent in the middle. - Provenance: Erna Schultze Cohnitz (1884–1971) / Ernst Cohnitz, Judicial Councilor, Berlin until 1971 / Margit Fischer-Cohnitz, Berlin / Heirs of Margit Fischer-Cohnitz, Berlin (Ernst Ludwig Fischer and his wife Gesine Fischer) / Heir Philipp Fischer—A certificate from the Art Loss Register (ALR Ref: S00277166), London, October 19, 2026, is included. Lodewijk Schelfhout is considered the first Cubist in the Netherlands. The grandson of the Romantic painter Andreas Schelfhout lived in Paris from 1903 to 1913. There he experienced Fauvism and Cubism firsthand and moved in the circles of Picasso and Henri Le Fauconnier. He was closely associated with Piet Mondrian. In 1910, he founded the Moderne Kunstkring in Amsterdam together with Conrad Kickert. This association became the central platform through which the Dutch public was introduced to the French avant-garde. When his paintings were displayed alongside works by Braque, Le Fauconnier, and Picasso at the 1911 exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, critics hailed him as the country’s “first Cubist.” This landscape was painted in 1913, the year of his return to the Netherlands, as a synthesis of his experiences in Paris. Houses, trees, and a path are broken down into angular, interlocking planes of color. The palette of ochre, green, and brick red evokes Cézanne, while the faceting recalls Le Fauconnier. The painting is thus an early and distinctive example of Dutch Cubism. Added to this is its rarity: in 1924, Schelfhout burned the majority of his early Cubist works. Paintings from this phase survive today only in isolated instances.