signed ‘Adr. Pieck’ (recto) and inscribed ‘Zelfportret/ ten geschenk aan/ familie G.G. Veenendaal/ Adri Pieck’ (verso)
pastel, gouache and watercolour
69.5 x 57.3 cm

Adrie Pieck was born into an artistic family; she was the niece of Anton and Henri Pieck, and Adrie and her three sisters received drawing lessons from a young age from her parents. [1] While Adri’s sister Gretha also became an artist, she died young – in contrast to Adri who lived a long life and left a particularly monumental œuvre. Large groups of her works are preserved in the Singer Museum, Laren and Museum Flehite, Amersfoort. Like many of her contemporaries she was strongly influenced by Vincent van Gogh and like that artist Pieck treated a wide variety of subjects in her work, from topographical views to portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, still-lifes and self-portraits. The latter part forms an important part of her painted and drawn œuvre; throughout her career Pieck produced self-portraits, often – as is the case here – depicting herself at work, gazing confidently at the viewer. The present work relates to a painting that is slightly larger and with a closely comparable composition, in the Collectie Hilversum. According to the inscription on the verso, Adri presented the present drawing to the family of G.G. Veenendaal, who took the initiative to publish the book Het leven en werken van Gretha en Adri Pieck in 1983.

[1] E. Depenbrock and M. Pieck, 'Het leven en werken van Gretha en Adri Pieck', Weesp, 1983, pp. 5-6.