Philip Lodewijk Jacob Frederik Sadée

Cooling Galleries, London, Toronto, May 1969
Private collection, Canada

The canvas has been relined. Craquelures in the overall painting, mainly in the sky. An L-shaped tear of approximately 20 cm. running through the fimale figures and the fisherman. Two minor holes; one in the centre of the sky, one above the left shoulder of the fisherman. This painting has been well restored.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Philip Sadée, born in The Hague in 1837, made his artistic debut at the age of twenty. At that time he specialised in historical and biblical subjects, which earned him considerable success. Around 1865 he distanced himself from these academic subjects and shifted his attention to genre scenes, subjects taken from daily life. For a period of six months he studied with the famous Düsseldorf genre painter Albert Kindler, whose colourful and finished style he adopted.

In 1868, during his stay in the fishing village of Scheveningen, Sadee got fascinated by the fishing genre. He often worked in the dunes and on the beach, which became an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Sadée's contribution to the popular fishing genre was completely original. In fact, his accurate, finished brushwork and bright colours secured him a unique position within  the 'greyish' Hague School.

The present lot, which was discovered only recently, depicts a group of fisherwomen near a shrimper on Scheveningen beach. To the right, the painting offers a wonderful view of the spacious beach at low tide, with a beached bomschuit and some figures in the distance. The sunlight illuminates the white foam of the breakers, thereby creating a great depth in the picture. In many ways, this beautiful painting is a great example of Sadée's highly original style, which earned him international fame.

The present lot can be compared to a watercolour of the same subject in the collection of the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (illustrated in T. de Liefde-van Brakel, Zonder vlijt geen zegen, Philip Sadée, schilder uit de Haagse School, 1837-1904, Zwolle 1990, p. 35, cat.no. 32).