GEER VAN VELDE (1898-1977)
COIN DE TABLE D’ATELIER (1915/20)

Over the course of a painting career spanning more than 50 years, Geer van Velde (1898–1977) experienced periods of extreme poverty and disappointment interspersed with times of success and recognition. During their first difficult years in Paris, the brothers Bram and Geer were financially supported by their former painting patrons Eduard and Wijnand Kramers from The Hague. During the crisis years, this source dried up, and Bram and Geer were left to fend for themselves. Kramers did try to generate interest among various art dealers in the Netherlands, but the results were meager. The collector Regnault purchased a work by Geer, but that was the extent of it.
An important figure in Geer van Velde’s life became Samuel Beckett, the Irish writer living in Paris. Beckett introduces Geer to influential figures such as Peggy Guggenheim, who exhibits his work in her London gallery in 1938. Later that year, Geer leaves for the South of France with his wife, following a rift between him and Bram and Beckett. That year would later prove to have brought about a turning point in Geer’s artistic and personal life. The Mediterranean light significantly influenced his palette, as well as his visual language. His contacts with the painter Pierre Bonnard and gallery owner Aimé Maeght were also of great significance to Geer.