Rein Dool: love for the drawing profession

Review

A painting with cigar-smoking elderly gentlemen suddenly made national news last November. After complaints from an employee, it was removed from the Academy Building of Leiden University. A performance with only white old men, who also all smoke, would no longer be of this time. Although Rein Dool, who painted the scene, thought it was a ridiculous action, it was also the best free advertising he could wish for. A month later, an exhibition with a selection from his drawn oeuvre opened in the Dordrechts Museum.

Text and photos: Evert-Jan Pol

His old age – he is already ninety – does not prevent Rein Dool (1933) from working every day. For more than seventy years he has been constantly making art: paintings, drawings, graphics, sculptures and ceramics. He started as a draftsman and drawing is perhaps what he likes to do most. At a young age, Dool explored the landscape in and around his native city of Leiden with pencil and paper. In his earliest drawings, the influence of his famous fellow townsman Rembrandt is still visible. He later developed his own handwriting and visual language.

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That visual language does have different dialects, because Dool’s drawn oeuvre is one of extremes. It varies from detailed landscapes to cartoonish humorous depictions. With pen, charcoal or brush in color he brings them to life on handmade oriental paper, his favorite background.

Man is an important theme in his art; whether smoking older men or sunbathers on the beach. Even a man brushing his teeth is an interesting subject for Dool. The representation with human figures is sometimes slightly surrealistic in nature. What about a man who steps into a giant egg. Or does he just climb out?

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As a draftsman, Rein Dool does not seem to shy away from a subject. A wood-burning oven, a still life with everyday items, a park landscape or realistic portraits; he draws them all with equal attention and ease. The love for the drawing profession shines through every performance. Rein Dool still takes up the drawing pen with great pleasure. This is evident from the tastefully compiled overview in the Dordrechts Museum, in the city that Rein Dool has called his home since 1973.

Rein Dool – Draftsman, until 21 May in the Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht

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