Portrait of Rob Graafland
| Dating | unknown |
|---|---|
| Material / technique | oil on oak |
| Dimensions | 132 cm x 55 cm |
| Literature | Twaalhoven, Th.W., Robert-Archibald Graafland 1875-1940, Voerendaal 1975, p. 27 |
| Exhibitions | Eindhoven 1997 (March 15 - May 11), Museum Kempenland, Kunst van Limburgers: uit de eerste helft van de twintigste eeuw |
| Provenance | unknown |
| Current residence | Museum aan het Vrijthof, Maastricht, the Netherlands |
| Signature | b.r. in paint: Hri. Goovaerts [underlined] [year illegible] |
| Headings | |
| Remarks | The painting is probably made on an old window shutter. This is not only indicated by the unique size of the panel, but also by the specific hooks attached to the back of the panel. Esquire Robert Archibald Antonius Jean Graafland (1875-1940), or Rob Graafland, was a painter and illustrator. Graafland was ten years younger than Henri Goovaerts and just like Goovaerts he was born in Maastricht and educated at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. In 1910, Rob Graafland was one of the founders of the artist collective 'Limburgse Kunstkring', of which Henri Goovaerts also was a member, besides among others Jules Brouwer, Hermann Bopp, Henri Jonas and Han Jelinger. This casually formed group of artists regularly met in Café Suisse at the Vrijthof in Maastricht, which soon gave them the name ‘The Pack of the Suisse’. In 1911, Graafland moved with his family to the Sint Pieter district in Maastricht, not far from where the Goovaerts family lived. Goovaerts' youngest son will later describe to Graafland's daughter the beautiful memories he has of the Italian garden that Rob Graafland had laid out behind his house in Sint Pieter (see http://www.robgraafland.nl). At the time when Henri Goovaerts suddenly died, he was working on a portrait of the Maastricht Military Guard. This painting would eventually be completed by three other Maastricht painters. Rob Graafland was one of them. |