Charles Eyck (art depot): from Baroque to Expressionism

Around 1952, a significant shift in Charles Eyck’s style took place, partly coinciding with his stay in Curaçao (1952–1953). He moved away from his narrative, lyrical-Baroque style toward a more modernist, expressive visual language. While abstraction was gaining ground in the post-war art world, Eyck continued to work figuratively. For new means of expression, he looked primarily to the cubist lines of Picasso and the visual language of the Expressionists: colour planes, little depth, and stylised figures in a deliberately simple style.

The difference is clearly visible in two portraits of his daughter Anne-Margit, nicknamed ‘Bimba’: the 1939 work is strikingly different in style and feel from the 1956 painting Girl with Cat.

Heerlen

Heerlen and the former mining region played a prominent role in Charles Eyck’s work. Several churches in the area feature his paintings, sculptures, and stained-glass windows. Eyck’s work was regularly exhibited at the Heerlen Town Hall. In 1954, a show included work he made in Curaçao, complemented by painted ceramics and lithographs. In 1957, an exhibition was held in honour of his 60th birthday. The Heerlen art collection contains several works by Eyck, including a portrait of Mayor Marcel van Grunsven, the large painting Schutterij, and a study for the inauguration portrait of Queen Juliana. For the Town Hall, he submitted a proposal for a mural in the civic hall, although it was never realised. Both the mayor’s portrait and the actual inauguration painting were part of the Dutch submission to the first São Paulo Biennale in Brazil in 1951. These works also clearly show the contrast in painting style before and after 1952.

St Pancras Church

Between 1940 and 1942, Eyck painted four vaults in St Pancras Church. In the transepts, he depicted biblical scenes. With his Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, he completed a series of five Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary that had been started by other church painters. A bomb blast on New Year’s Eve 1945 caused significant damage to the church. After temporary repairs, the vaults in the nave had to be replaced in the 1950s, which meant Eyck’s paintings there were lost. What remains are three 1939 studies of apostles’ heads, now in the collection of Museum Valkenburg.

About the Art Depot

SCHUNCK’s Art Depot not only provides more space for the art collection but also ensures its structural accessibility to the public. The collection is presented through rotating thematic exhibitions in an interactive way. The Art Depot is freely accessible to all, increasingly positioning SCHUNCK as a museum for the city. The depot consists of three separate spaces with racks, each featuring a different exhibition. These are regularly rearranged, allowing visitors to see new works with each visit to the Glaspaleis. In each room, visitors can choose the order of the racks themselves — and therefore the works they wish to view.