Charles J. Kemper - three (3) charcoal/pastel/ink drawings of ladies - signed - Sold

• Charles Jean Kemper (Heemstede, September 18, 1913 - Rotterdam, October 25, 1985) was a Dutch painter.

Kemper worked for the police in Rotterdam and was taught by PC Wilt in the evenings. From the third year onwards he continued his education at the Academy of Visual Arts in Rotterdam, where he was taught by Bautz (portraits and nudes). In 1947 he studied at HF Boot in Haarlem. He painted and watercolored in Rotterdam, harbours, figures and portraits. His interiors of cafés and pubs form a separate genre. From 1951 onwards, Kemper was part of the Rotterdam exhibition group Argus, together with Kees Franse, Jan Goedhart, Ed van Zanden and later Jan Burgerhout, among others. Since then, his interest has focused on the advancing city, industrial activity and the decline of the countryside.
There were not many artists in the city in the early 1950s, but there was, as Mathieu Ficheroux - his is the wall portrait of Multatuli in Van Oldenbarneveldstraat (1974) - saw it, a clear hierarchy. At the top he placed the Argus group, of which Louis van Roode was a member for some time after his Window period. In addition to Van Roode, this included Jan Burgerhout, Kees Franse, Jan Goedhart, Charles Kemper, Huib Noorlander and Ed van Zanden. The founders chose the name Argus, the mythological giant with a hundred eyes, to clearly indicate that looking came first for them and that the members were not interested in a new movement in art.
In 1957 the Argus Group celebrated its first anniversary with an exhibition at the Rotterdam Art Foundation on the Korte Lijnbaan. On that occasion, a particularly luxurious album was released in a small edition of forty copies. In addition to photos of the six members - Louis van Roode had already left the group around 1955 - this edition contained images of sculptures.
In the Monument Year 1975, an episode of the Baksteen organ depicted 28 watercolors that he made together with his son Maarten Kemper. Maarten Kemper died in 1982 at the age of 38.