The exhibition will offer an overview of Van Dongen's production from his beginnings in Rotterdam to the end of the Roaring Twenties, highlighting his expressive and rigorous touch that led him to be counted among the Fauvist artists who revolutionized painting at the 1905 Salon d'Automne. It will also highlight his personal journey up to the First World War and in the years following the conflict, a journey that placed him among the leading figures of Montparnasse from before the 1914 war, and of which he remained one of the main representatives during the interwar period.
Among the works on display are his main favorite subjects: circus and music hall scenes, balls, fairs, social salons, nightlife on the boulevards, landscapes, bouquets, etc., as well as the portraits on which the artist would later focus most of his work, and the representation of women, which, between 1905 and 1914, reached a presence of extreme intensity.
On the occasion of the exhibition: "Kees Van Dongen, du fauvisme aux années folles", Helene Bailly Gallery will lend five works by Kees Van Dongen "Draeger, un merveilleux Ambassadeur" (1924), "Portrait de femme à la cigarette", "Scène de rue" (circa 1902), "Un coup de vent" (1901) and "Premier fantôme, Le Mépris" (1901) to the Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art in Tokyo.