Willem Gerard Hofker (1902-1981)
'Huispoortje van Umah Metèng' / 'Little house gate from Umah Mèteng'
signed annotated and dated 'W.G. Hofker / Bali / juli '43 ' (lower right); signed again (twice), annotated, titled (twice) 'Zomerdijkstr 30/2 [Amsterdam] / Huispoortje van Umah Metèng / Bali / Kleine zorg voor den tempel' (written by the painter on the a cardboard on the reverse)
oil on canvas, 41,5x31,5 cm
Exhibited: -Amsterdam, Art et Amicitiae in Amsterdam from 29 June to 21 Juli 1946, as no. 38.
Literature:
-Seline Hofker and Gianni Orsini, Willem Gerard Hofker (1902-1981), Uitgeverij de Kunst, Zwolle, 2013, ill. no. 226, p. 170, as: 'Deurtje Umah Meteng'.
Provenance: -Acquired directly from the artist in 1946 by Mrs Anke Schierbeek (1878-1960) a famous Dutch concert singer, at the Arti et Amicitiae, 1946 in Amsterdam. Thence by descent to the present owner.
As an architectural painter, the artist Willem Gerard Hofker had already gained significant fame in his native country of the Netherlands in the 1930s. His cityscapes, especially of Amsterdam, in which he often surrounds the exceptional beauty of the stately canal houses with tree leaved branches, captured in the warm glow of summer light.
We know that Hofker had a predilection for architecture which can also be deduced from the amount of cityscapes that can be found in his entire oeuvre. And by viewing these painted pieces by this master, we can easily read this enormous admiration and respect from the canvases. They contain the ability to silence the observer when noticing all the details, such as a small open window that brightens by a touch of that sunlight. Whether it was an image of a carved facing brick in the stately canal houses in Amsterdam, or the ornate wood carved door of a house in Bali, all of them were captured with the greatest care by Hofker, as we can see here in this magnificent and unique painting, titled ‘Little house gate from Umah Metèng’.
It is considered to be a very unique piece, due to the fact that during the five years that Willem Hofker resided on the Island of Bali from 1938 to 1943, only a few typical Balinese architectural images were caught by him on canvas. And the majority of these were of a temple or palace gate, all showing an open door, in contrast to this one here where the door is completely closed presenting the traditional woodcarvings of a rich pattern.
Hofker painted this lovely little house in its purest architectural beauty including the cracks in its plastering and the characteristic steps built up from heavy stones, and with the classic attributes such as the hanging braided basket and a yoke of which one of the two lattice baskets is visible in the lower left corner. This scene is exactly as he observed in July of 1943, as the date indicates: only five months before Willem and Maria were forced to leave Bali, due to the Second World War, and never returned.
Somehow Hofker managed to take this particular painting through the war and brought it back to his homeland in 1946. Shortly afterwards Arti et Amicitiae, the Society of Visual Artists in Amsterdam, offered him the chance to include this painting in a sales exhibition, an exhibition which he shared with the Indonesian artist Raden Basoeki Abdullah. Among the forty six Balinese works that Hofker sold from this exhibition there was also the painting 'Little house gate from Umah Metèng’. A good friend of the Hofkers had bought it, cherished it and passed it on in her family, where it stayed ever since.
© Seline Hofker October 2022
Hofker Archive: Documented by W.G.Hofker in Juli 1946 in his notebook ‘deliverd work’ as: ‘Deurtje Umah Metèng’, schilderij / Little house gate Umah Metèng, painting.
For this artist resale right is applicable from € 2400 hammer price onwards
Estimate
Time, Location
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'Huispoortje van Umah Metèng' / 'Little house gate from Umah Mèteng'
signed annotated and dated 'W.G. Hofker / Bali / juli '43 ' (lower right); signed again (twice), annotated, titled (twice) 'Zomerdijkstr 30/2 [Amsterdam] / Huispoortje van Umah Metèng / Bali / Kleine zorg voor den tempel' (written by the painter on the a cardboard on the reverse)
oil on canvas, 41,5x31,5 cm
Exhibited: -Amsterdam, Art et Amicitiae in Amsterdam from 29 June to 21 Juli 1946, as no. 38.
Literature:
-Seline Hofker and Gianni Orsini, Willem Gerard Hofker (1902-1981), Uitgeverij de Kunst, Zwolle, 2013, ill. no. 226, p. 170, as: 'Deurtje Umah Meteng'.
Provenance: -Acquired directly from the artist in 1946 by Mrs Anke Schierbeek (1878-1960) a famous Dutch concert singer, at the Arti et Amicitiae, 1946 in Amsterdam. Thence by descent to the present owner.
As an architectural painter, the artist Willem Gerard Hofker had already gained significant fame in his native country of the Netherlands in the 1930s. His cityscapes, especially of Amsterdam, in which he often surrounds the exceptional beauty of the stately canal houses with tree leaved branches, captured in the warm glow of summer light.
We know that Hofker had a predilection for architecture which can also be deduced from the amount of cityscapes that can be found in his entire oeuvre. And by viewing these painted pieces by this master, we can easily read this enormous admiration and respect from the canvases. They contain the ability to silence the observer when noticing all the details, such as a small open window that brightens by a touch of that sunlight. Whether it was an image of a carved facing brick in the stately canal houses in Amsterdam, or the ornate wood carved door of a house in Bali, all of them were captured with the greatest care by Hofker, as we can see here in this magnificent and unique painting, titled ‘Little house gate from Umah Metèng’.
It is considered to be a very unique piece, due to the fact that during the five years that Willem Hofker resided on the Island of Bali from 1938 to 1943, only a few typical Balinese architectural images were caught by him on canvas. And the majority of these were of a temple or palace gate, all showing an open door, in contrast to this one here where the door is completely closed presenting the traditional woodcarvings of a rich pattern.
Hofker painted this lovely little house in its purest architectural beauty including the cracks in its plastering and the characteristic steps built up from heavy stones, and with the classic attributes such as the hanging braided basket and a yoke of which one of the two lattice baskets is visible in the lower left corner. This scene is exactly as he observed in July of 1943, as the date indicates: only five months before Willem and Maria were forced to leave Bali, due to the Second World War, and never returned.
Somehow Hofker managed to take this particular painting through the war and brought it back to his homeland in 1946. Shortly afterwards Arti et Amicitiae, the Society of Visual Artists in Amsterdam, offered him the chance to include this painting in a sales exhibition, an exhibition which he shared with the Indonesian artist Raden Basoeki Abdullah. Among the forty six Balinese works that Hofker sold from this exhibition there was also the painting 'Little house gate from Umah Metèng’. A good friend of the Hofkers had bought it, cherished it and passed it on in her family, where it stayed ever since.
© Seline Hofker October 2022
Hofker Archive: Documented by W.G.Hofker in Juli 1946 in his notebook ‘deliverd work’ as: ‘Deurtje Umah Metèng’, schilderij / Little house gate Umah Metèng, painting.
For this artist resale right is applicable from € 2400 hammer price onwards
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
