- 23
Otto Eerelman Dutch, 1839-1926
Description
- Otto Eerelman
- 'Afbeeldingen van Grieksche en Romeinsche goden' - a portfolio of 18 sheets depicting the Roman and Greek gods
- all signed
- ink, gouache and watercolour
- 32 by 49 (15) and 49 by 32 (3)
Provenance
Sale Groningen (Concerthuis), Estate Otto Eerelman, November 1926, lot 317
Collection Hendriks-Bolhuis, Groningen
Private collection, The Netherlands (since 1969)
Exhibited
Slochteren, Fraeylemaborg, Eerelman, schilder van portret en genre, 1989, cat.no. 203
Literature
Teio Meedendorp, Otto Eerelman 1839-1926, Amsterdam 1989, pp. 11-12, illustration 1, cat.no. 203
Catalogue Note
Otto Eerelman created this unique series of 18 watercolours in 1857, when he was only 18 years old. The author of the book on the artist, Teio Meedendorp, quite rightly qualifies this portfolio as an early and stunning proof of his artistic talents. The subjects of the watercolours were partly based on Titiaan, whose paintings he might have known from prints. The portfolio greatly impressed the director of the Minerva Academy in Groningen, J.H. Egenberger. It prompted him to accept Eerelman as one of his students in 1860. Eerelman kept the portfolio his entire life. It was sold after his death in 1926 and stayed in private hands ever since.