1887 The Hague – 1964 Blaricum
A BOWL OF APPLES
watercolor and chalk on paper, 248 x 340 mm
signed and dated lower right: Chris. Beekman. ’20
date: c.1917
provenance:
architect and designer, Mart Stam (1899-1986);
artist Fritz Panndorf (1922-1999), gift of the above, Germany;
by descent, 2024.
A bowl of apples was created by Chris Beekman during the period in which he was associated with the avant-garde movement De Stijl. At this time Beekman, like many artists of the European avant-garde, was searching for a new and ideal visual language. The drawing demonstrates his translation of observed reality into a more objective and timeless form of representation. Forms are reduced to their most elementary structures, partly expressed through simplified geometric shapes and clearly defined planes. The restrained palette of black, white, and gray contributes to a sense of balance, while the asymmetrical composition creates a dynamic equilibrium. Through these formal elements the work reflects the broader aim of De Stijl to develop a universal visual language that transcended individual expression.
Beekman’s strong personality meant that he did not readily adopt the ideas and stylistic principles of others, but instead developed his own artistic ideals and approach. Although his work reflects a clear search for abstraction, it generally retains a less rigid structure than that of more theoretically oriented artists of De Stijl, such as Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. In many of his compositions the subject remains recognizable—as in A bowl of apples—and diagonal lines frequently appear, in contrast to the predominantly horizontal and vertical structures favored within De Stijl. His oeuvre therefore forms an important link between figurative art and the abstract ideals of the movement.
The break with the group followed a political gesture: an artists’ petition submitted to the Dutch government urging the restoration of communication with fellow Russian artists. Van Doesburg accused Beekman of attempting to politicize De Stijl, and this ideological conflict ultimately led to Beekman’s departure from the movement in 1919.
A painting and another drawing with the same motif and composition are known (fig. 1). Both drawings are signed in full rather than with the usual “Christ B.” This raises the question of whether the works may have been signed and dated at a later stage.
Chris Beekman, Bowl of Apples, 1917, watercolor on paper, 280 x 362 mm. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Chris Beekman’s artistic development was closely connected to his early social awareness and engagement with the conditions of labor. At the age of thirteen he began working at the Rozenburg Porcelain Factory in The Hague, an experience that profoundly shaped both his social outlook and artistic interests. Although Rozenburg’s production around 1900 represented the height of Art Nouveau design in the Netherlands, Beekman’s own work moved in a different direction. Influenced by socially engaged artists such as Théophile Steinlen and Vincent van Gogh, he focused on subjects drawn from everyday life, including laborers, vagabonds, and the urban poor. The artistic environment of The Hague—shaped by figures such as George Hendrik Breitner, Jan Toorop, and his teacher Willem Bastiaan Tholen—further encouraged an approach grounded in observation and social empathy.
A decisive moment in his career came in 1913 when he was introduced to the influential critic H. P. Bremmer, a key promoter of Vincent van Gogh and advisor to Helene Kröller-Müller. Bremmer acquired numerous drawings by Beekman and facilitated the inclusion of more than one hundred works in the collection that later formed the basis of the Kröller-Müller Museum. Between 1917 and 1919 Beekman briefly participated in the avant-garde movement De Stijl, but his socially oriented views soon conflicted with the more theoretical program of Theo van Doesburg. A few years after leaving the group he returned to a clear and accessible realism. Following his move to Amsterdam in 1926, he increasingly addressed the political and economic tensions of the interwar period, depicting workers and the unemployed and reaffirming the socially engaged ideals that had shaped his work from the beginning.