Kees Andréa

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As long as I can remember, my mother was an avid painter. Only after her passing did I learn that, in her twenties, she took lessons from the well-known painter Kees Andréa (1914 - 2006) at the Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten (Free Academy of Visual Art) in The Hague. Andréa was also a member of Pulchri Studio.

Cornelis (Kees) Andréa combined fragments of reality to create a surreal existence “in which a hesitation arises between the observable and the imagination,” according to an art critic.

Now, as I examine Andréa's paintings, I find myself wondering if I can learn something about my mother through his work. Can we truly know our parents' lives before we were born?

‘De Haan’

‘De Haan’

Kees Andrea - lithograph - 'Wounded horse'' - 1949

Kees Andrea - lithograph - 'Wounded horse'' - 1949

‘De Dreiging’

‘De Dreiging’

Kees Andrea (The Hague 1914 - 2006) Spring landscape with rain Signed l.l. Titled and dated 1960 on the stretcher Oil on canvas, 60.3 x 80.5 cm N.B.: The work depicts the view from the studio of Andrea in Loosduinen.

Kees Andrea (The Hague 1914 - 2006) Spring landscape with rain Signed l.l. Titled and dated 1960 on the stretcher Oil on canvas, 60.3 x 80.5 cm N.B.: The work depicts the view from the studio of Andrea in Loosduinen.