signed-oil on canvas 101,5×70 cm
About the artist
Stamkart was a Dutch painter, draughtsman and designer about whose life virtually nothing is known. His works are very rare and sought-after examples of mystical/occult symbolism though. In or around 1897 Stamkart was a pupil at the Amsterdam Academy of Arts. Allegedly his fellow artists there saw him as ‘a talented artist and one that soon disappeared from the spheres of normality and regular daily live. A disappearance like this is certainly not an evil thing: bottled wine likes to mature in the dark.’ (Alb. Plasschaert, ‘Stamkarts Lucifer’, Amsterdammer, 15 April 1915. Transl. S.B.) This is characteristic for Stamkarts art, which seems to come from a private universe, far away from the reality we know. In this his oeuvre is comparable to that of artists like Gustave Moreau or Odilon Redon.