Kid Oliveira (Boxer)

1939

Wim van de Plas

oil on canvas

114,5 x 93 x 5,5 cm (ingelijst / framed) 100,5 x 80,5 cm

Acquired in 1939

Inventory number 390

Location VAM, B0, 05, 00

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Description

This portrait of the boxer Kid Oliveira won Wim van de Plas the second prize in the 1939 exhibition North Brabant Painting and Sculpture at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. The museum immediately purchased the painting. Van de Plas was a celebrated portraitist. His sitters included Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Pope Pius XII.

The boxer is depicted in an ‘active pose’: his body is turning and he supports his weight on his left hand. His light blue shirt and green tie contrast subtly with the brown-ochre tints of his skin, which stand out somewhat from the dark suit. The background is applied in a casual wash of colour, but the portrait itself is painted in assiduous detail.

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Context

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