Provenance:
Herman d’Audretsch 1966;
Karel Citroen 1970s;
Piccadilly Gallery, London.

Exhibitions:
London 1966 no. 11, München 1970 no. 11, as Madame K. & Laren 1974-’75 als Portretstudie naar mej. K. (1904).

Literature:
Bink & Veeze, Leiden 2025 no. 307.

Carel de Nerée tot Babberich here depicts another lover, Berta Kappler (1879?-1917), whom he met in the sanitorium at Todtmoos. de Nerée tot Babberich drew her portrait three times in 1904, as the catalogues from 1910-1914 attest. Three untitled pencil portraits may be identified as portraits of Kappler due to the distinctive dark eyes and combed-up hair. All of these bear strong resemblance to a photograph in once de Nerée tot Babberich’s possession, taken by Gustave Hahn in Todtmoos, of a young woman with a bouquet of roses on her lap. This photograph bears an inscription: ‘To my dear Carel, as a fond reminder of happy times spent together. Berta Kappler, Summer 1904’. The ‘happy times’ did not last, it seems, as Kappler wrote to de Nerée tot Babberich on 21st December 1904: ‘Tears stream down my cheeks as I thought of the hours we spent together so happily. Now its all over, it’s like a dream’.