Portrait of Salomon Beffie
Currently on view
Jan Sluijters (1881 - 1957), c. 1912
oil on canvas, 107.5 cm x 85.5 cm
Credits: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (State of the Netherlands), c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2025
It takes guts to paint a portrait of your client with green hair. ‘What a nerve!’, wrote one art critic in 1913. But Jan Sluijters knew his subject. Salomon Beffie (1874-1958) was delighted with the painting. He even ordered a second version of it for his family.
Sluijters experimented intensively with the expressive effect of bright colours. Ever since encountering the work of the French avant-garde in Paris a few years earlier, he had been producing extravagant paintings featuring an explosive use of colour. Van Gogh was also a major inspiration. Sluijters thought his work was ‘universally accessible and comprehensible’.
- Object number
- s0532N2012
- Dimensions
- 107.5 cm x 85.5 cm, 127 cm x 104.5 cm, 7 cm
- artist
- Jan Sluijters
- Credits
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (State of the Netherlands)
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Ongekend. Verhalen rond 10 jaar aanwinsten, 5 February-12 September 2021
Laren, Singer Museum, Sluijters, 10 September 2011-5 February 2012
Amsterdam, Joods Historisch Museum, Joods Mecenaat, 14 February-16 May 2010
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Portret S. Beffie, 20 October-12 December 1955
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Jan Sluijters. La Joie de Peindre, 17 December 1951-3 February 1952
Arnhem, Vereeniging voor Beeldende Kunst (Arnhem), Jan Sluijters, 29 July-1 September 1950, no. 3
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Tentoonstelling van het levenswerk van Jan Sluijters, 5-29 December 1931, no. 95
Utrecht, Voor de Kunst, Jan Sluijters, October-November 1916, no. 17
The Hague, Pulchri Studio, Tentoonstelling van schilderijen, teekeningen en pointes-sèches van Jan Sluijters en Lodewijk Schelfhout, 3-25 July 1915, no. 17
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Twee en twintigste jaarlijksche tentoonstelling van kunstwerken door leden der Vereeniging in het Stedelijk Museum te Amsterdam, 4 May-15 June 1913, no. 224
The Hague, Kunstzaal J.C. Schüller en Eisenloeffel, Jan Sluijters, 14 April-3 May 1913
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Moderne Kunstkring, October-November 1912
Darley, Esther, Suijver, Renske, Meesterwerken in het Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2019, p. 164
Darley, Esther, Suijver, Renske, Masterpieces in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2019, p. 164
Raad, J. de, Raassen-Kruimel, Emke, Vries, Jan de, Jan Sluijters, 1881-1957, Bussum, 2011, p. 152-153
Voolen, E. van, Gedurfd verzamelen : van Chagall tot Mondriaan, Zwolle, 2010, p. 119, 122-124
Blokland, Ann, Colen, D., Raad, J. de, Jan Sluijters : schilder met verve, Laren ; Zwolle, 1999, p. 37-38 ,42-43, 202
Pagé, Suzanne, La beauté exacte : art, Pays-Bas, XXe siècle : de Van Gogh à Mondrian, Paris, 1994, p. 157, 327
Leeuw, Ronald de, Van Gogh Museum : schilderijen en pastels, Zwolle, 1993, p. 262
Leeuw, Ronald de, Aanwinsten/Acquisitions, Zwolle, 1991, p. 74
Nieuwe beweging : Nederlandse schilderkunst om 1910, Eindhoven, [1955], no. 97
Reinink, H.J., Schuurman, K.E., Trends in Dutch painting since Van Gogh, [S.l., s.a.], no. 45