Wim Schuhmacher

Initially Wim Schuhmacher painted in a Luminist style. From 1915 until 1917 he travelled through the Netherlands and painted many landscapes, still lifes, nudes and portraits in dark tones of the form of Cubism, practised by the Bergense school. Beginning 1920's Schuhmacher started working in a more realist style. He visited Italy and Corsica, where he painted stunning landscapes. The dark colours were replaced by a palette of grey tones combined with ochre. In addition he painted extremely detailed nature still lifes.

By the 1930's Wim Schuhmacher was seen as one of the most important artists of the Netherlands. Critics wrote nothing but positive things about his work. It was especially the use of light and composition of his work in the 1930's that the critics mentioned in their essays. Plasschaert compared the artist' s use of colour with the inside of a shell and Kasper Niehaus with crystal, referring not only to the light but also to the use of cubist elements in his composition.
Inspired by the early cubism of  Moïse Kisling, Schuhmacher tilted the perspective of his compositions. As seen in Still life with fish and lemons the table on which the still life is displayed has been placed diagonally in the composition. The viewer looks at it from a high point of view. Still life with fish and lemons was painted in 1931, a year that Schuhmacher mastered his technique of fine painting completely. As can be seen in the present lot, the artist's realism has developed to the highest point. (J. van Geest, Wim Schuhmacher, de Meester van het Grijs, Arnhem 1991, p.116)