Jan van der Aa / Detlef Allenberg

Being a draughtsman for a news paper giving his vision

on the matters to appear on the frontpage, van der Aa

has an ironic vue on mankind.

Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 50 - 60 cm.

Detlef Allenberg

A surrealistic painting with a lot of atmosphere in it.

The wall built up with clothes is a great find while 

in the opposite of this wall, the flags are made of stone.

the wide area in the background gives tis painting

a fascinating desolate character while there are

no human beings, animals, buildings, trees or flowers

involved. Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 104 / 80 cm.

As the signature already states, tis work has been

created in 1988. Allenberg is a German based painter.

Strange thing is that there are no works of him to be

found on the auction internet sites.

Joan Gairdy Artigas / Attias

This big colour litho is a wallhanger in my guitarstudio.
It is therefore allways subject of conversations about
what the artist exactly ment. Dimensions: 50 - 80 cm.

Attias

Being done in a nearly COBRA like way this landscape

has some nice elements in it. Though the artist is not

known to us we simply liked it because of its spontanity.

Presented here is the signature though we couldn't find 

anything about an artist with this name. Suzanne Attias

could be a possibility. The color turquoise however

in this painting showed a lot of craquele and was

bound to come off. I removed it, made a new grounding

and painted it as close to the original as possible.

It has been fixed as shown here above.

Roger Baert / Enrico Baj / Martin R. Baeyens

This study in pencil of the Belgium artist Roger Baert

happened to be anonymous for me for a long time.

Being more experienced in reading signatures it

proved to be signed by Roger Baert.

Work on paper. Dimensions 25 / 35 cm.

This italian artist was the counterpart of the spanish based
Pablo Picasso. The two were friends by accident!
By making the army officers ridiculous Baj more than
often made his political statement. Dimensions: 20 - 30 cm.

Martin R. Baeyens

This litho was made for a special occasion by this

Belgium artist who more than often mixes past with

present that leads to surprising compositions.

Work on paper. dimensions: 70 / 90 cm.

Ton Beentjes / Henryk Berlewi / Alba Bernardi

This Dutch painter and illustrator often works on request

as can be determined by his portrait work. The style he

uses however is profoundly one of his own and that

makes every portrait enjoyable for everyone as it

is not "just'  a portrait. He did a lot of wall illustrations

in the Netherlands as well and is living in Amsterdam.

Henryk Berlewi

Possibly and most likely a drawing made by the polish artist 

Henryk Berlewi, father of the Optical Art. As allways

Henryk Berlewi is trying to catch the caracter of the 

people exposed. Moreover the dimensions are pointing 

towards a much used paper format at that time.

The signature of Berlewi changed over time but around 1938
this is quite convincing. The paper has aged as one would
expect from a drawing that old. And last but not least:
Henryk Berlewi made a lot of portraits in France and
Belgium in the period he lived in Paris until 1938.
Work on paper. Dimensions: 22,5 / 30 cm (app.)

This drawing falls in the same time guideline:

1930 - 1938 was the time Berlewi was in Belgium and France.

This drawing is in good condition and it is promising

that we have another signature to compare!

Here's the signature on this portrait. As Henryk Berlewi often

made drawings of famous people at that time this portrait

could be one of the more famous people in Belgium or France 

at that time. Work on paper: Dimensions: app. 25 / 35 cm.

Alba Bernardi

A joyful work, a bit in the naive style of the South American

painters in that field. Work on paper. Dimensions: 38 / 58 cm.

It has the title "Il Pescatore Solitario" and was used for 

an exposition in Bologna. We weren't able to find any 

information about the artist, so feel free to react!

This work is quite consequent in its' approach.

Certainly not a "first product" of someone.

We found this label on the back but there is 

not any gallery anymore on this address.

More than once some painters are using a pseudonym.

Sometimes to be able to bypass exclusive rights or

simply to be able to do things in another art direction.

Usha Bhalla / Colette Bitker / BKR Rotterdam / Kees van Bohemen

Colette Bitker ( 1929 -

This piece in fact merely is a watercolor though the artist

provided it with some extra accents in chalk. She is

living in Belgium (Brussels) but was born in Paris.

It was a kind of subtlety that catched our attention and

that element in fact is always present in her works.

She simply signs with "Bitker" and besides watercolors she

did crayons and litho's as well. Work on paper. Dimensions:

38 / 50 cm.

BKR Rotterdam

In fact an unreadable signature but a work with nice 

elements in it. It was very dirty but once cleaned this

painting has freshness in approach as well as colors.

We all worked with circles once in our life time but

the horizontal lines make this work complete.

And signature found on this painting made for the BKR

Rotterdam in order to receive some money each month.

It was a move by the Dutch government to help

starting artists. Oil on board. Dimensions: 62 / 77 cm.

Kees van Bohemen

Kees van Bohemen gained a lot of popularity in the Netherlands
as well as in de States. He lived and worked in New York and
among his friends were fellow painters Karel Appel and Corneille.
Work on paper. Dimensions: 50 - 70 cm.

Felix de Boeck / Victor Boissevain

A litho by one of the bigger artists from Belgium.

Work on paper. Dimensions: 50 / 60 cm.

Victor Boissevain

In fact this is quite a comical scenery as it appears

to be Carnival but nobody seems to have pleasure.

In fact the woman in the middle seems to feel

threatened by observing her attitude and the

way she holds her arms. Work on cardboard.

Mixed media. Dimensions: 70 / 100 cm.

On the back of this painting we found this signature

and though this artist often doesn't sign his works on

the front we were able to look at one example where

he did sign in this manner and on the front!

We think this work to be more smashing once this

work has been varnished as some colors do not

do justice to the meaning of the artist to our believe.

We had E-mail contact with the artist and he states

this work has been made in 1981 and in fact depicts 

a Russian scenery. A whole story around his visit

in the USSR but in fact it was a concert piano player

who fled from Russia. She was the inspiration for this

remarkable painting. Title: Stolichnaya from USSR

Federica Bonay / Henri Bruel

Federica Bonay

This spanish based artist has her own surrealistic style.
Work on paper. Dimensions: 30 - 40 cm.

Henri Bruel

This Frenchman, Henri Bruel is regarded as a naive painter.

However, in our opinion he restyled the real and thus created

a world of his own. All elements in his paintings are tuned

in his unique way. Immediately recognizable what in fact is

the quality of a great artist. This work has a place in our

childcare building in the back of our garden.

Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 33 / 46 cm.

And of course the signature of this artist and the date

of production added.

Daniël Bruniaux / Jean Claude Buisson

This big work on canvas was done by Daniel Bruniaux

who is often compared with his english counterpart Francis Bacon

in the way he sees mankind. Allways humoresque and

sometimes sarcastic. Work on canvas. Dimensions 100 / 120 cm.

These two drawings are from the serie "Manhattan".

Jean Claude Buisson (1937 - 

Buisson always remained true to his figures: A bit

of Japanese like faces in an always surrealistic surrounding.

Jean Claude Buisson perfected these kind of scenes along

the timeline but remains recognizable anyway!

Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 37 / 35 cm.

Bernard Cathelin / Christian (Jan) De Leener / Marcel Cockx / Jean Dechene

Bernard Cathelin (1919 - 2004)

A litho from the celebrated Frenchman Bernard Cathelin.

It is called "Grand Marche Mexicain" under which title

he made more works e.g. also oil paintings. This is a

rather big work that has been titled and signed.Work on

paper: Dimensions: 56 / 85,5 cm.

Despite the reflections I hope you are able to

see the nice combination of this "Schleiper"

encadreert around this litho.

He simply signed his works with Cathelin

And the numbering of course 99 out of 125.

A little bit more "uncommon"  the title written

in pencil as we presume he didn't print his litho's

himself. Quite valuable!

Christiaan de Leener

This work was sold as being a genuine work by Elsa de Boever

however further investigations proved it to be Christian

De Leener. Source: The Paul Piron Signature dictionnary

Elsa was the daughter of Jan Frans de Boever who himself

was a very gifted painter. He accused his daughter of being

his copyist. That's why these two people split.

This work has very little to do with the work of Jan Frans.

For that reason we have doubts that it really is a Elsa de Boever.

It is said that she never produced any art after she split with

her father in 1921. Mixed techniques. Dimensions: 50 - 70 cm.

 

It actually seems to be written De Boever but it

is "De Leener" Further is presented another

work by the same artist.

On the internet we found a portrait of Romy Schneider in her

last years (made in 1980) but that was a work at the beginning

of the career of Christian De Leener as a painter. He started in 1976.

It is our believe that the later works do have much more quality.
You are able to find some works by this artist on findartinfo.com
but under the name J. De Leener. The signature however is
convincing and besides the allready mentioned portrait of Romy
Schneider, he also made one of Jacques Brel, both made at the
beginning of his career.

Marcel Cockx (1930 - 2007)

Marcel Cockx made this "mix"  more than often but always

with children placed in the centre of his works. This is a nice

example as besides his "Smolders" touch the elements that

play a role in a childs life are there with a decorative

elaboration  as an extra. Work on canvas. Dimensions:

80 / 80 cm.

This detail gives a better insight in the decorative

figures in this painting. The soft expression in

the childs'  face accentuates a kind of innocence.

And of course his signature: Definitely a Marcel Cockx.

Jean Dechene

A rather big watercolor by this Belgium based artist.

Should we see this as a forearm (on the right) holding

a flower or is that just coincidence? Work on paper.

Dimensions: 50 / 66 cm

A close up from this work. Dechene often worked in

these soft, pastel like colors that give his work a kind

of dreamy atmosphere.

He even uses the way water can work on a watercolor 

when adapted later which gives this work some "rusty"

elements.

The signature is unreadable but lucky enough his name

was written on the back of the encadrement. The title of

this work is named "Clematite". Clematis in English.