Portraits and figures

Carry van Bruggen

Kees van Willigen · 1915–1990

Date

1988

Medium

Oil painting

Size

30 x 30 cm

Carry van Bruggen (1881–1932) was the first Dutch woman philosopher to be recognised by her male peers; she was nicknamed “the George Sand of Laren”, her home village. She opposed nationalism and wrote as early as 1925: “at the bottom of everything absurd and bad lies nationalism”.

Kees van Willigen admired her writing. He paints her from a photograph, with a face that is both calm and intense. Made less than two years before the end of his life, the painting is not entirely finished.