Meijer De Haan was a close friend of Vincent van Gogh’s younger brother Theo and collaborated with Paul Gauguin, but he himself never became well known. The portraits and genre paintings produced in Meijer de Haan’s Amsterdam period were clearly influenced by the Zeitgeist as well as his Jewish background. They display a marked contrast with the later work dating from his time in Brittany. The unexpected contrast in style, light and colour in these two crucial periods served as the exhibition’s guiding principle.
Éditions Hazan, 2009