WILLEM ADRIANUS FABRI (1853-1925): Overdoor painting

Signed below right, oil on canvas, doublé, in oak frame, dimensions without frame 97,5 x 98 cm, with frame 107 x 105 cm. Price € 1.850.

This beautiful overdoor painting by Willem Adrianus Fabri in its original oak frame finds its provenance in the paneling of an unknown house. The scene with putto, blue-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna) and vase with flowers on a plinth is clearly inspired by a design by Daniël Marot. This Frenchman introduced the Louis XIV style in the Dutch Republic.

As the architect of Stadholder-King William III (1650-1702), Marot designed the garden and main interiors of the Loo palace. Queen Wilhelmina was a great admirer of Marot. Between 1895 and 1914, Willem Fabri from Rotterdam carried out many commissions for the palaces Loo, Noordeinde, Soestdijk and Lange Voorhout on behalf of the Queen. Willem Fabri was around 1900 one of the most important Dutch decorative painters who practiced the so-called historical genre styles.

Most commissions were based on designs by Marot, including the magnificent decoration of the stairwell of the Loo Palace. The overdoor painting that we offer resembles a ‘dessus-de-porte’ that Fabri painted in 1913 for the disappeared lower antechamber in the Loo Palace.

This authentic and dignified painting is of course very suitable when restoring a classical mansion back to its former glory, but we can also imagine a purpose as an eye-cather in a modern interior of a reception room or hotel/restaurant.

The canvas has some lightly worn spots. Not surprising for a canvas that is approximately 100 to 120 years old. The surface of the painting has a few minimal damages. Our restorer will repair these minor defects before sale: Ars Decora only sells works of art in very good condition.