Raoul  Hynckes
Brussels 1893-1973 Blaricum

Landscape  in  the  Spring

48,7 x 57 cm           19.2 x 22.4 in
oil on panel

signed lower right RHynckes.
situated on the back Gulpen

situated: painted in the village of Gulpen, near Maastricht

Raoul Hynckes was a pupil of the academy’s in Brussels and Mechelen from 1907 on. Already in his youth he developed a passion for French literature and discovered the oeuvre of Anatole France. He painted landscapes in Oudergem near Brussels and at the Belgian coast. In 1912 and 1913 he stayed a few months in Dordrecht and Volendam. At the outbreak of war in 1914 Hynckes was mobilized. After the capture of the Liège citadel he fled to The Netherlands, where he established first himself in The Hague and then in Amsterdam. Hynckes kept on painting in a clear impressionist style. Remarkable is his preference for a high placed horizon. The horrors of war led to a psychological crisis. As a remedy he started wandering through the country. Hynckes style slowly changed: he worked less to nature, locked himself up in his studio and went on painting after his memories. From 1921 on he was looking for a new language with daring diagonal compositions, sober colors, a flat rendering without modeling and a monumental depiction of the central motif. This resulted in expressionist works in 1923 and 1924 with a simplified theme with wide color patches and powerful brushwork. Hynckes discovered cubism in 1924, destroyed most of his former oeuvre and went on to depict still lives and self portraits. This influence will stay in his work until the beginning of the thirties. With an increased attention for a compact composition, harsh geometrical contours and an equal lighting, a realistic rendering and clair obscure his art evolved towards magical realistic vanitas still lives with a stressed atmosphere in the thirties and forties. Raoul Hynckes became famous with his magical realism. Together with Carel Willink, Dick Ket, Wim Schuhmacher and Pycke Koch he belongs to the most important artists of Dutch neorealism. Around 1950 Hynckes returned sporadic to Belgium. Like before 1924 he showed attention for the landscape in the region of the South of Limburg and around Charleroi. Hynckes did not depict the Gooi-region but went to the Borinage-region and the surroundings of Maastricht, where he already was active in his youth. These landscapes and village views are spontaneous impressions with an intimate vision of nature. Like his still lives of these years they do have an easier approach then his neorealistic work. The with chalked villages and the endless country roads are inspired of the Walloon country side. The same absence of movement as in his still lives is dominating these silent landscapes without persons or animals. The soft sideway lighting and shadows is enforcing the impression of an quiet silence.
Important individual shows of Hynckes oeuvre were organized in Amsterdam (De Larensche Kunsthandel, 1915; JS Fetter, 1921; Kunstzaal Van Lier (1929,1932,1935); EJ van Wisselingh & Co (1946,1950,1952,1957,1974); in Brussels (1911,1913; e.g. in Galerie Boute), in The Hague (Kunstzaal d’Audretsch, 1914), in Laren (1958,1960), in Rotterdam (1918), in Canada (1953) and in museums in Arnhem (1967,1973,1991), Dordrecht (2003), Nijmegen (1954), Spanbroek (2001) and Turnhout (1975).
Works by Hynckes were shown at the salons of Antwerp, Berlin, Brussels and Paris, in the Rotterdamse Kunstkring, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden and Pictura in Groningen. Hynckes annually exhibited from 1923 till 1926 with the Hollandsche Kunstenaarskring in the Stedelijk Museum and from 1931 on with the Neorealists in Kunstzaal Van Lier in Amsterdam. Since the exhibition Keerpunten in the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1960) Raoul Hynckes is considered together with Pycke Koch and Carel Willink as the most important artists of Neorealism in The Netherlands. This show was followed by important exhibitions in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (1961),  in Hengelo (1965) in the Royal Museum of Fine arts in Antwerp (1971) and in Kortenhoef (1987). Exhibitions in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig (A fruitful past – A survey of the fruit still lifes of the Northern and Southern Netherlands from Brueghel til Van Gogh 1983), in the Singer Museum in Laren, in the Rijksprentenkabinet-Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent (Vlaams expressionisme in Europese Context 1900-1930 1990) showed works by Raoul Hynckes.

Museums: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen; Museum voor Moderne Kunst - Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven; Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag; Municipal Art Gallery, Johannesburg; Singer Museum, Laren; Museum Stichting, Nijmegen; Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Frisia Museum, Spanbroek; Centraal Museum, Utrecht; Rijkscollectie Nederland

Bibliography:
Raoul Hynckes RWP de Vries jr in Elsevier’s Geïllustreerd Maandschrift Amsterdam jg.XXVI dl.LII (juli-december 1916)
Palet – Een boek gewijd aan de hedendaagsche Nederlandsche schilderkunst Paul Citroen Amsterdam 1931
Zes moderne schilders W Jos de Gruyter Amsterdam 1935
Repertorium voor de Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Schilder- en Graveerkunst sedert het begin der 12de eeuw tot het eind van 1932 H Van Hall ‘s-Gravenhage 1935-1936 (vol.I)
Schilders van een andere werkelijkheid: Raoul Hynckes, Pyke Koch, Carel Willink SP Abas Den Haag 1937
Biographisch Woordenboek van Noord-Nederlandsche Graveurs, uitgegeven door Beheerders van het Wallerfonds en bewerkt door dr WR Juyboll FG Waller ‘s-Gravenhage 1938
Holland schildert Huib Luns Amsterdam s.d.
Raoul Hynckes dr JH Van der Hoop Amsterdam 1940
Raoul Hynckes Charley Toorop Amsterdam 1940
Levende Nederlandse Kunstenaars K Niehaus Amsterdam 1943
Lexicon van Nederlandsche schilders en beeldhouwers, 1870-1940 SJ Mak van Waay Amsterdam 1944
Ontaarde Kunst P Aretino (Paul Citroën) ’s-Gravenhage 1945
Raoul Hynckes – Met tekst van den schilder  dr JH Van der Hoop (Nederlandse schilders van deze tijd) Amsterdam & Brussel 1947
Schilders van het stilleven Dr R Van Luttervelt Naarden 1947
Het literaire element bij de Nieuwe Realisten Jan Engelman in Pen en Penseel, Critisch Bulletin 1947
Repertorium voor de Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Schilder- en Graveerkunst 1933-1946 H Van Hall ‘s-Gravenhage 1949 (vol.II)
Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler Hans Vollmer Leipzig 1955 vol.II p.515
Raoul Hynckes in De Periscoop september 1955
Neo-realisme in de schilderkunst JHM Van der Marck Amsterdam 1960
Reality Re-examined: four Dutch painters Wouter Kotte s.l. 1962
Neo-realisme in de schilderkunst JHM Van der Marck Amsterdam 1963
In mijn ogen - Raoul Hynckes als schilder en schrijver Hans Redeker Amsterdam 1964
Lexicon Nederlandse Beeldende Kunstenaars 1750-1950 Pieter A Scheen ’s-Gravenhage 1969 vol.I
Raoul Hynckes Kees Broos Nijmegen 1989
L’Art du XXe siècle éd.Larousse Paris 1991
Moderne kunst in België 1900-1945 R Hoozee, I Henneman, M Tahon-Vanroose, H Lauwaert, S Goyens de Heusch, P Boyens, R Gobyn Antwerpen 1992
Magisch Realisten en tijdgenoten in de verzameling van het Gemeentemuseum Arnhem Jan Brand, Kees Broos Zwolle & Arnhem 1992
Beeldend Nederland: biografisch handboek PMJ Jacobs Tilburg 1993 vol.I
Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs E Bénézit Paris 1999 vol.VII
Magie en zakelijkheid - Realistische schilderkunst in Nederland, 1925-1945 Carel Blotkamp, Ype Koopmans Zwolle & Arnhem
Schilders van Laren C Denninger-Schreuder Bussum 2003