Portrait of Henri van Booven and other figure studies. Verso: Nude c.1898-99
Carel de Nerée tot Babberich
* 1880 in Zevenaar † 1909 in Todtmoos
Pen and ink. Size of sheet: 29.5 x 22 cm.
Provenance:
Auction Mak 1932 or 1933;
Antiquariaat Minerva, Den Haag, early 1960s;
Private collection, The Netherlands, until 2023.
Exhibitions:
Dordrechts Museum 2025.
Literature:
Bink & Veeze, Leiden 2025, no. 334.
Henri van Booven was a close friend of Carel de Nerée tot Babberich. It has been suggested that both men were queer. Around 1900, they spent many nights in de Nerée tot Babberich’s apartment – reading, writing, drawing. van Booven’s 1900 poem “De avonduren” [“Nightly Hours”] from the collection Witte nachten [“White Nights”] is dedicated to ‘K. d. N. t. B.’, and probably references the pair’s nights together. It has been state that de Nerée tot Babberich drew several portraits of van Booven, though no others appear to survive – or at least can be identified.
P.O.R.