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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Willem van Konijnenburg, Paedestinatie (Dance of Fate), 1918
Willem van Konijnenburg
Paedestinatie (Dance of Fate), 1918
signed with the artist initials and dated:‘WAvK 1918’
black and colored chalk on paper
47 ½ by 31 ½ inches (120 by 80 cm.)
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Provenance

 G.F.H. (Frits) van Kooten Kok, The Hague, The Netherlands;

G.F.H. van Kooten Kok jr., on loan to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1935;

G. Oudshoorn, The Hague, The Netherlands;

Mrs. S.H. Oudshoorn-Spaan, The Hague, The Netherlands;

Mrs. Tine Bottema, The Hague, The Netherlands;

Sale, Christie’s Amsterdam, 7 December 1994, lot 246;

Private collection, The Netherlands

Exhibitions

 The Hague, Pulchri Studio, Hollandsche Teeken-Maatschappij 42ste Tentoonstelling , 6 – 30September 1919, no. 42.

Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Willem van Konijnenburg ,

5 April – 7 May 1922, no. 12. 

Amsterdam, Arti et Amicitiae, Tentoonstelling van werken door H.P. Berlage, W.A. van Konijnenburg en R.N. Roland Holst , 8 November – 13 December 1922, no. 6.

The Hague, Pulchri Studio, Eeretentoonstelling W.A. van Konijnenburg ,

12 February – 8 March 1928, no. 17.

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum 1935, permanent loan, no. 138

Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Willem van Konijnenburg 1868-1943 , 26 October – 2 December 1990.

Assen, Drents Museum, Willem van Konijnenburg 1868-1943 , 15 December 1990 – 11 February 1991.

Breda, De Beyerd, Wendingen 1918-1932. Architectuur, kunst en vormgeving , 23 March – 13 May 2001.

Literature

 Dr. G. Knuttel, Elsevier magazine  (edition LIX) 1920 pp. 3 -4 (ill.) review of the 1919 exhibition)

Albert Plasschaert, “Willem van Konijnenburg” in: Wendingen  4, Vol. 1/2’, 1921, pp. 4-13, ill. p. 20.

Franz Dulberg, “Willem van Konijnenburg”, in: Winterboek  VI, Amsterdam, 1927, pp. 52-90.

H. de Boer a.o., Willem A. van Konijnenburg. Schilderijen en teeekningen in de verzameling

G.F.H. van Kooten Kok , part II, The Hague 1929, ill. pp. 144-145 with a poem by P.G. Boutens

Willem A. van Konijnenburg. Gemälde und Zeichnungen Sammlung G.F.H. van Kooten Kok , The

Hague 1929.

Willem A. van Konijnenburg. Paintings and drawings belonging to the collection of G.F.H. van

Kooten Kok , The Hague 1929.

Gerard Knuttel, Willem van Konijnenburg , Amsterdam (Paletreeks), 1941, ill. p. 37.

Mieke Rijnders, Willem van Konijnenburg 1868-1943 , Assen 1990, p. 104, ill. p. 235 (nr IX).

Mieke Rijnders, Willem van Konijnenburg, Leonardo van de Lage Landen , Zwolle 2008, p. 312, no. 143 ill.

Publications

Praedestinatie is one of the finest drawings by Willem van Konijnenburg. It belongs to a program of six dances (fig. 1): Dans der jonkheid (Dance of Youth), 1917; Rituele dans...
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 Praedestinatie is one of the finest drawings by Willem van Konijnenburg. It belongs to a program

of six dances (fig. 1):  Dans der jonkheid (Dance of Youth), 1917;  Rituele dans (Ritual Dance),

1918;  Fatalisme (Fatalism),  circa 1918,  Heksendans (Witch Dance), 1919 and  Krijgsdans (War

Dance), 1919. Together with Jan Toorop, Leo Gestel and Jan Sluijters, the Hague artist Willem

van Konijnenburg represented the face of Dutch modern art abroad during the Interbellum. In his

youth, Van Konijnenburg was famous not so much for his artistic skills as for his dandy-like

appearance and his active involvement in The Hague art circles. From 1900 on, he abandoned The

Hague School of Impressionism and started to develop his own classical idiom. Using an invented

system of rules in which symmetry and mathematical patterns played an important role, Van

Konijnenburg created harmonious compositions, which won him considerable fame. His theme

was no longer landscape, but the idealized individual. Van Konijnenburg’s unique interpretation

of modern art was considered highly innovative at the time. He received important commissions,

among them the relief in Berlage’s Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, and participated in numerous

exhibitions.

 

When the well-respected art critic Albert Plasschaert announced in 1912 that Van Konijnenburgh

was a better draughtsman than his contemporary Jan Toorop (1858-1928), a true rivalry ensued.1

In 1919 when the present series was first exhibited at Pulchri Studio in The Hague, Van

Konijnenburg demanded to be exhibited next to Toorop, surely to enable a comparison. While

Toorop was represented with eleven drawings, Van Konijnenburg contributed two series: the

present large format pastels and five slightly smaller anatomical studies to demonstrate that he

mastered rendering the body accurately, securing his nickname the ‘Leonardo of the Low

Countries.’ Toorop and Van Konijnenburg could not have been more different in their choice of

color scheme and rendering of line. Whereas Toorop’s interest in the Flemish Primitives was

evident in his work, Van Konijnenburg was considered the modern Renaissance artist and esthetic

intellectual. That all six drawings were presented in monumental artists’ frames surely helped

solidify his reputation.

 

Van Konijnenburg was, like Piet Mondriaan, an avid dancer. As fellow artist Chris de Moor

noted “Mondriaan en “Konijn” dansten beiden urenlang de tango, de een in Parijs, de ander

in de House of Lords in den Haag” (Mondriaan and “rabbit” both danced tango for hours,

one in Paris and the other in the House of Lords in The Hague).2 The present  Predestination

and the other drawings of the series, executed between 1917 and 1919, all have an ecstatic

dance as theme. Five of the six drawings, exhibited in a group exhibition at Pulchri Studio in

The Hague in 1919 were acquired shortly afterwards by Frits van Kooten Kok and remained

together until they were offered for sale at the 1994 auction when they all diverged. Fritz

Kok, a merchant in tea and quinine, amassed mostly works by Van Konijnenburg for his

collection. When Franz Dülberg visited Kok’s stately residence in 1921, he referred to it as

the “real Museum Konynenburgs”.3

 

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