Jos Croin - Corner Keizersgracht-Leliegracht

The painting is in neo-expressionist style. The dark palette of brown and grey expresses the gloom of the crisis years and the threat of war. The painting was part of the Meentwijck collection. The Amsterdam cityscapes from the collection came back on the market via Christie's in 2003. The painting is in excellent condition.
Josephus Judocus Zacharias (Jos) Croin (Middelburg, 15 March 1894 - Amsterdam, 24 November 1949) was a Dutch painter. When he was eleven, he visited an exhibition of Vincent van Gogh with his father in his hometown. This made such an impression on him that he announced that he had made up his mind to become a painter. At the age of thirteen, he earned his own pocket money by drawing portraits of acquaintances and teachers. When he was sixteen, he won a gold medal at an exhibition of Zeeland painters in Vlissingen. In 1912, at the age of eighteen, he went to the Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague. His family's plans to have him train as a drawing teacher failed. The necessary subject of mathematics did not appeal to the young Croin. Jos wanted to become a painter and therefore went to the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam for a two-year study in 1916, at the time when professor Antoon Derkinderen was director. After having stayed briefly in Laren (1918) and The Hague (1918-1920), he left for Paris in 1920. In this city he became a pupil of the Fauvist Othon Friesz. On the basis of a stipend he stayed in Rome for some time. He also made study trips through France and Spain and worked on the Breton and Normandy coasts. Croin died in Amsterdam on 24 November 1949, a few days after the opening of his exhibition at Huinck and Scherjon. He was cremated on 26 November, a gloomy autumn day, at Driehuis-Westerveld.