Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 7

Dick Beer
A Cubist French City, 1919

1919

$13,778.65
£10,255.41
€11,500
CA$18,873.31
A$20,991.24
CHF 10,960.97
MX$255,441.04
NOK 139,988.34
SEK 131,284.37
DKK 87,545.48
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Dick Beer (b. London 1893 - d. Stockholm 1938) A French City, 1919 (Fransk stad) oil on canvas canvas dimensions 82x66 cm frame 94x78.5 cm signed Dick Beer painted 1919 Exhibited: Gothenburg Art Gallery, Memorial exhibition, 1944; Åmells Konsthandel – En internationell kubist, Stockholm & London, 2008; Provenance: Within the family Beer until today Cubistic vision: In the period following the First World War, the artist’s painting underwent a fundamental transformation. Dick Beer was influenced by various modernistic expressions. In Paris, the first wave of cubism, led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, was established. It was a controversial artistic style. There was a heated debate about cubism, in which the artist broke up the motif into smaller components, sometimes called facets, in order to rebuild it on the flat surface of the pictorial plane. This manner of painting represented a complete break with preceding pictorial conventions and naturalistic painting. Cubism was governed by theory, not practice, and critics claimed that the style was too intellectual for the general public and they predicted that it would disappear and that artists would return to a rather more classic expression. The theories surrounding cubism and its various expressions opened up for a number of reinterpretations in the 1910s. Dick Beer was well aware of the cubist discussions. He embraced the ideas but created a varied, personal and emotive cubism in the years around 1918. His painting was often an explosive discharge with playful characteristics and a futuristic dynamism which accentuated the painting’s inherent speed and movement, as for example his works “Dancer” and “The Toy Box”. He also experimented with geometric compositions of buildings and landscapes, which were reminiscent of Paul Cézanne’s more cubic landscapes. Here, Beer’s colours were often muted, in blue, brown and red hues. He frequently returned to earlier motifs and reworked his canvases into a cubist style, as in “Dancer tying her shoes” and “Seated dancer“. Contemporary art critics were appalled and Beer had to endure severe criticism. At one point, the artist published a reply in the daily Politiken, 1919, where he described his view on art: “... because love for and understanding of art, ‘l’art pour l’art’, is not easy to achieve, and neither is it easy to comprehend the different movements’ or schools’ origin, goals, characteristic endeavours, etc. – These international phenomena require not only theoretical and art historical knowledge but (...) the ability to empathise with and feel for art, as its practitioners do”.
  • Creator:
    Dick Beer (1893 - 1938, Swedish, British)
  • Creation Year:
    1919
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 32.29 in (82 cm)Width: 25.99 in (66 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Very good, ready to hang.
  • Gallery Location:
    Stockholm, SE
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1445212003682

More From This Seller

View All
Cubist Painting from 1918-19, Portrait of Dr Mens III
Located in Stockholm, SE
Dick Beer (b. London 1893 - d. Stockholm 1938) Portrait of Dr Mens III, 1918-1919 oil on board 70 x 50 cm stamp signed painted c. 1918-1919 Provenance: Within the family Beer until today Dick Beer (1893-1938) Dick Beer was born in London in 1893. His father, John Beer (1853-1906), was a Swedish painter from Stockholm who had a career mainly as a watercolour painter with motifs of horses from racetracks and fox hunts from the countryside. Barely fifteen years old, Dick Beer became an orphan and came to Sweden in 1907. Already in 1908-1909, he started at Althin's painting school in Stockholm. And later, at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1910-1912. His teachers were, among others, Gustaf Cederström, Oscar Björk and Alfred Bergström...
Category

1910s Cubist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Cubist Painting By Swedish Artist Dick Beer, View From a Window, 1920
Located in Stockholm, SE
Dick Beer (b. London 1893 - d. Stockholm 1938) Utsikt från fönster, View From a Window, 1920 oil on canvas 73 x 60.5 cm stamp signed painted 1920 Exhibi...
Category

1920s Cubist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Post-Impressionistic Painting From Saint Cloud, Paris, 1912 by Dick Beer
Located in Stockholm, SE
Dick Beer (b. London 1893 - d. Stockholm 1938) Saint Cloud, 1912 oil on board board dimensions 40.5 x 32.5 cm frame 51.5 x 43.5 cm signed Dick Beer painted 1912 Exhibited: The Swedish-French Art Gallery, Memorial Exhibition, Catalog nr 5, 1942 Provenance: A private collection, Sweden Dick Beer (1893-1938) Dick Beer was born in London in 1893. His father, John Beer (1853-1906), was a Swedish painter from Stockholm who had a career mainly as a watercolour painter with motifs of horses from racetracks and fox hunts from the countryside. Barely fifteen years old, Dick Beer became an orphan and came to Sweden in 1907. Already in 1908-1909, he started at Althin's painting school in Stockholm. And later, at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1910-1912. His teachers were, among others, Gustaf Cederström, Oscar Björk and Alfred Bergström...
Category

1910s Post-Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Post-Impressionist Painting By Dick Beer, Stormy Weather in St.Arnoult, 1917
Located in Stockholm, SE
Dick Beer (b. London 1893 - d. Stockholm 1938) Title: Stormy Weather in St.Arnoult Dick Beer was born in London in 1893. His father, John Beer (1853-1906), was a Swedish painter from Stockholm who had a career mainly as a watercolour painter with motifs of horses from racetracks and fox hunts from the countryside. Barely fifteen years old, Dick Beer became an orphan and came to Sweden in 1907. Already in 1908-1909, he started at Althin's painting school in Stockholm. And later, at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1910-1912. His teachers were, among others, Gustaf Cederström, Oscar Björk and Alfred...
Category

1910s Post-Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Cubist Portrait of Gabriele Varese (in Italian uniform), 1919
Located in Stockholm, SE
Dick Beer (b. London 1893 - d. Stockholm 1938) Portrait of Gabriele Varese (in Italian uniform), 1919 oil on canvas mounted on panel 116 x 90 cm stamp signature Exhibited: Solo exhibition, Stockholm, Nov-Dec 1917; The Royal Academy Stockholm 1973; Åmells Konsthandel – En internationell kubist, Stockholm & London 2008 Hälsinglands Museum 2011 Millesgården – Dick Beer – Impressionist & Kubist, 2012 Provenance: Within the family Beer until today Dick Beer was born in 1893 in London as Richard Beer, the youngest of five brothers. His father, John Beer (1853-1906), was a watercolourist who was born in Stockholm and had left Sweden at the age of 17. John Beer instructed his sons in drawing and painting, among other things. A number of sketchbooks bear testimony to the boys’ talent. Dick Beer’s parents died in 1906 and 1907. Barely 15 years old, Beer arrived in Sweden as an orphan. First he lived with relatives and finally he ended up at Reverend Laurell in Västergötland. Dick Beer began his artistic studies at the Althin School of Painting in Stockholm in 1908 and continued at the Royal Academy of Arts in the autumn of 1910, but in September 1912 he broke off his studies and travelled to Paris. He rented a studio and enrolled at the Colarossi and Grande Chaumière academies. In the summer of 1913, Dick Beer travelled to Pont-Aven in Bretagne in order to paint. In September the same year, he held his first solo exhibition in Stockholm which he gave the French title Exposition des tableaux de Bretagne et autour de Paris. The exhibition proved a success. Many of the paintings were executed in a light palette in a style inspired by the impressionists. In 1914, Dick Beer undertook an extensive study trip to Italy, Tunis, Morocco and Spain, which resulted in canvases overflowing with colours and light. When the French army mobilised, he volunteered and was enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. In 1915 Dick Beer sustained severe head injuries in a grenade attack, which resulted in deafness and a nervous condition that would plague him for the rest of his life. Two of his brothers died the following year, fighting for the English army. Dick Beer was hospitalised and convalesced at Château de Rochefort. Here he started painting again, in an impressionist style, a painting dominated by blue and green hues. In 1918, Dick Beer married Ruth Öhrling, a dentist, and their son John was born later in the year. During this time, Beer began experimenting with cubist painting and created several large compositions, including the painting “The Arab Café”. In the years that followed, Dick Beer was based in Paris, where he often moved house. He was instructed by André Lhote, who encouraged his students to work freely in the studio and provided them with individual critique. Beer often travelled to Bretagne or Provence. His artist friends came from all over Europe and included Amedeo Modigliani. Dick Beer exhibited fairly regularly in Paris between 1919 and 1934 and made a name for himself in French artist circles. In the summers, Ruth regularly rented a house in the countryside, often at Lake Mälaren. She kept a large house with many models and friends and there was a lot of painting and discussions. In 1933, the couple divorced but Ruth still loved Dick and continued to support him financially for the rest of his life. Dick Beer also exhibited in Sweden, albeit irregularly due to his failing health. In the 1920s and 1930s, Beer continued to pursue an expressionist painting with intense colours and unexpected perspectives, but eventually he veered towards more naturalistic forms, including a large number of nudes. He also painted several portraits of artists, politicians and writers. In 1938, Dick Beer sojourned in Arles. The budding photographer Christer Strömholm...
Category

1910s Cubist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Panel

French Landscape by Philippe Marie Picard, Oil on Canvas, Signed, Dated -46
By Philippe Marie Rene Picard
Located in Stockholm, SE
Philippe Marie Picard (1915-1997) French French Landscape oil on canvas signed Ph m Picard dated a tergo 16.4 -46 canvas size 12.99 x 22.04 inches (33 x 56 cm ) frame 23.03 x 31.49 inches (58.5 x 80 cm) Provenance: A Swedish private collection. The Artist: The year was 1915, and Philippe Marie was born in the small village of Neuvy-le-Roi in France. His parents were Albert Picard and Marie Lehoux; he had a total of six siblings. After studying at the Lycée Descartes in Tours, he entered the studio of the artist François Sicard...
Category

1940s Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

A Serene Cubist Industrial Site
Located in San Francisco, CA
Only an artist (or a stockholder) could see the beauty in a cobbled-together industrial complex. Rendered by artist N. Robins in muted golds and greens, a typical hodgepodge of struc...
Category

Mid-20th Century Cubist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Mid-20th Century Cubist Abstract Cityscape of Lucerne Switzerland Oil Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Cubist Cityscape of Lucerne signed by Colbert Cassan (1899-1979) oil on canvas, unframed dated 1955 Canvas: 20 x 25.5 inches Provenance: private collection Condition: very good condi...
Category

Mid-20th Century Cubist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Abstract Cityscape Cubist Oil on Canvas Painting by E. Pullman
Located in Atlanta, GA
French artist E. Pullman (France, 20th Century) designed this stylish cubist abstract cityscape oil on canvas painting. The skillful composition and rigorous construction use vivid c...
Category

Late 20th Century Cubist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Cubist Street Scene
Located in Houston, TX
Colorful cubist acrylic painting street scene by French artist Adelmann, circa 1960. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits a standard-size...
Category

1960s Landscape Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Notre Dame
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Long Island City, NY
Looking out over the Seine and a bridge running across it, Pablo Picasso's view of the famed Notre Dame de Paris is filled with light, airy buildings layered in front of one another....
Category

Late 20th Century Cubist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Paysage
By Albert Gleizes
Located in London, GB
Mobilized in 1914, like many of his Cubist friends, Albert Gleizes was sent to a barracks in Toul, Lorraine, near the front line. Supported by a military doctor, Major Lambert, of wh...
Category

1910s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil