Herman Paradies - Blaak and Wolfshoek, seen from the Leuvehaven (Pre-war Rotterdam) 092-HP - Sold

Lithograph of a "drawing in black chalk and watercolor by Herm. CA, Paradies".
Published by "Friends of Our House" as "Premium 1940"
Signed in the print right
The image is a true picture of the times; it dates from shortly before the bombing in May 1940. The area in question was severely affected by the bombing.

"Our house":
In 1909, "Ons Huis" was opened in Gouvernestraat, Rotterdam, a building intended for so-called 'popular development work' and one of the oldest buildings in the city with a cultural purpose. Ons Huis was one of the few cultural buildings to be spared during the Second World War. After the war, it initially developed more into a center for visual arts, with exhibition space and studios. Later, film and theater were added as defining activities.
In 1949, under the supervision of the Rotterdam architect JB Bakema, part of Ons Huis was converted into a cinema: 't Venster (later Venster 1). The building also received the entrance, which is still visible today. In 1952, the same architect modernized the 'old theater hall' into the De Lantaren theater hall (later Lantaren 1). In the almost sixty years since then, the building has been regularly cut and pasted.
In its first six decades the building was managed and financed by a succession of private associations and associations. The most important association over the years, until WWII at least, was "Friends of our House". From 1969, the Rotterdam Art Foundation (a municipal service) took over the management of the theater hall. In 1986, Theater Lantaren/Venster became an independent foundation again. In 2004, a concrete plan was drawn up to develop a new film and theater building on the Wilhelminapier.

Herman (HCA) Paradies; September 14, 1883, Rotterdam – January 22, 1966, Schiedam
The painter Herman CA Paradies was born in Rotterdam. Despite resistance from his father, he trained for several years at the Rotterdam Academy and earned his living as a painter and decorator at Wilton-Feyenoord in Schiedam, but in his spare time he painted cityscapes, often commissioned by the Municipal Archives.
After moving to Schiedam in 1940, fleeing the violence of war in Rotterdam, he mainly made many paintings and watercolors of mostly old parts of this city.
He was mainly an impressionist painter of cityscapes and took part in several exhibitions. Exhibitions were dedicated to him in 1945, 1949, 1975 and 1990. In 1992, a folder with 24 reproductions of his drawings, watercolors and paintings was published on the occasion of the exhibition “Herman CA Paradies” in the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.

The Rijnmond Toen website contains several works by Herman Paradies from my collection, including the lithograph depicted (under no. 092-HP).