Felix Elie Tobeen (1880-1920)
Lot 401 THE PROPERTY OF THE SCHERINGA MUSEUM OF REALIST ART


The collection of the Scheringa Museum of Realist Art was a high-profile attraction and, in its former setting, welcomed a large number of visitors. The collection managed to combine both breadth and focus, taking its cue from the Magical Realism that inspired the original acquisitions.

Initially, the founder, Dirk Scheringa, focussed on the then-underrated and overlooked Magical Realist artists of his native Holland. Within a short time, enough works had been acquired that they merited public display. Accordingly, the collection was shown in the Lidwina School for Girls, which was opened in 1997 as the Frisia Museum of Magic Realism.

Under the directorship of Emily Ansenk and later Belia van der Giessen, the collection spread its tendrils in a number of directions, and came to include a significant number of works by more modern and contemporary artists such as Fernand Léger, Fernando Botero, Taner Ceylan, Marlene Dumas, Lucian Freud and Duane Hanson. All of these works continued to explore variant threads of the realism that had inspired the collections beginnings. However, the original umbrella of Magical Realism was no longer appropriate, and so the collection was renamed the Scheringa Museum of Realist Art, exploring and celebrating a range of different realities from a variety of epochs and nations.

Christie's is offering a number of works from this impressive collection across a range of sales and categories. It is a tribute to the origins of the collection that the Dutch works of art that formed its core have been acquired by the businessman and philanthropist Hans Melchers, who intends to create a specialist museum in order to exhibit them, giving new life to the dream and again bringing attention to this formerly overlooked area of twentieth century art.

Felix Elie Tobeen (1880-1920)

Pelotaris

Closed7 February 2013

Price Realised

GBP 373,250

More Information

How to sell

Felix Elie Tobeen (1880-1920)
Pelotaris
signed 'Tobeen' (lower right)
oil on canvas
58 x 45½ in. (147.5 x 115.5 cm.)
Painted circa 1912

Collection Théodore Duret; their sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 1 March 1928, lot 27.
Anonymous sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 30 November 1998, lot 55.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 27 May 2002, lot 162.
The Scheringa Museum of Realist Art, Spanbroek, by whom acquired at the above sale.

Specialist note

This work will be included in the forthcoming Tobeen catalogue raisonné being prepared by Jean Richard and Jean-Paul Goikoetxea, under no. 52.