Nicolas Eekman

Nicolas Eekman (1889–1973) was a Dutch painter, printmaker and draftsperson, born in the Brussels metropolitan area in 1889 and dying at Paris in 1973. Structured authority metadata provided by Wikidata registers his citizenship within the Kingdom of the Netherlands under record Q1898155, whereas biographical notes in English Wikipedia describe him culturally as a Flemish figurative painter. Additional biographical variants record his full name as Nicolas Mathieu Eekman, as well as Nico Eekman, Nic Eekman, and the pseudonym Ekma.

According to English Wikipedia, Eekman was born in Brussels in the house where Victor Hugo composed Les Misérables. He pursued architectural studies, graduating from the Fine Arts Academy in Brussels. In 1907, at eighteen years of age, he delivered a public lecture in Brussels regarding Vincent van Gogh, whose work remained unacknowledged by the wider public at that time, and subsequently attended Van Gogh's first exhibition in Cologne in 1912. Following the outbreak of the First World War, Eekman took refuge in the presbytery of Nuenen in the Netherlands, where Bart de Ligt served as pastor. English Wikipedia notes that the Van Gogh family had occupied the same presbytery thirty years prior during the creation of The Potato Eaters. During his wartime stay in the Netherlands, Eekman exhibited regularly in Dutch institutions, attracting collectors such as Helene Kröller-Müller. Following a retrospective at the Reflets Gallery in Brussels, Eekman died on 13 November 1973 in Paris and was interred at Ivry Cemetery, a chronology corroborated across records in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists and Wikidata.

After relocating to Paris in 1921, Eekman integrated into the avant-garde artistic community centred around Montparnasse. English Wikipedia notes that his circle included figures such as Jean Lurçat, Louis Marcoussis, André Lhote, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst, and Frans Masereel. Structured authority records in Wikidata associate Eekman's production with Expressionism, speculative fiction, and realism, identifying French as his recorded working language.

Eekman formed a close friendship with the Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian. English Wikipedia records that the gallerist Jeanne Bucher exhibited Eekman’s work alongside Mondrian’s in Paris in 1928. Throughout the 1930s, Eekman participated in multiple group exhibitions in the United States, alongside solo exhibitions across European cities. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam featured his work in the 1939 exhibition and sale Onze Kunst van Heden. At the onset of the Second World War, Eekman sought refuge in Saint-Jean-de-Luz while pursued by Nazi authorities, signing compositions under the pseudonym Ekma. In 1944, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels included his work in a major exhibition attended by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. The specific commercial auction history and private trade turnover for his interwar graphic oeuvre are not established in the available evidence.

Eekman’s graphic and painterly production encompasses easel painting, printmaking, watercolour, book illustration, ex-libris design, and mural painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds his 1924 print work Dance of Death in Seven Tempos (Dood - Dans in Zeven Tempos), catalogued under inventory 2022.16. English Wikipedia records his extensive output as a bibliophile illustrator, citing editions of Alfred de Vigny’s Les Destinées (1933), Charles Deulin’s Contes d’un buveur de bière (1945), Charles de Coster’s Tyl Ulenspiegel (1946), and Henri Bosco’s L’Âne Culotte (1950).

At the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris, Eekman was awarded the gold medal for his painting La pelote bleue, which was subsequently purchased by the French state for the Jeu de Paume Museum, as documented in English Wikipedia. He later received the Nude Art Prize at the Deauville International Exhibition in 1956. In 1961, Professor H. Griffon commissioned Eekman to paint a monumental mural measuring 2.50 by 1.40 metres depicting biological medicines from around the world for the drugstore at Paris Orly Airport, a work analysed in the Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie. Institutional holdings of Eekman’s work are recorded by Wikidata in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Dordrechts Museum, Museum Arnhem, Huis van het boek, and the Print Collection. In 1989, his daughter Luce Eekman established the non-profit organisation Le Sillon Nicolas Eekman to promote his heritage, with a catalogue raisonné currently in preparation. The full criteria for identifying his graphic states, signatures, and studio marks remain unestablished in the available evidence.

The institutional representation of Nicolas Eekman spans print rooms, decorative arts libraries, and fine art collections in Europe and North America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York records an acquisition catalogued under inventory number 2022.16, titled Dance of Death in Seven Tempos (Dood - Dans in Zeven Tempos), executed in 1924. This entry constitutes the single object catalogued under Eekman's heading within the collection records of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In the Netherlands and Belgium, public holdings documenting his graphic and pictorial output are preserved across several civic and national repositories. Structured authority data maintained in Wikidata records Eekman's work within the permanent collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Dordrechts Museum, Museum Arnhem, the Print Collection, and Huis van het boek in The Hague. In the United States, his graphic production is further represented in the Minneapolis Institute of Art. English Wikipedia notes an earlier institutional acquisition by the French State following the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris, where his gold medal-winning canvas La pelote bleue was designated for the Jeu de Paume Museum. Additionally, English Wikipedia records his inclusion in a 1944 exhibition hosted by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels.

A comprehensive census detailing the complete inventory of Eekman's prints and paintings across all public institutions is not established in the available sources.

Critical assessment of Nicolas Eekman was established during his lifetime through a sequence of monographs and exhibition introductions published in Belgium, France, and Switzerland. In 1936, the art historian Paul Fierens published Monographie Eekman in Brussels, providing an early scholarly analysis of his figurative style. Subsequent French publications included introductory texts by Maurice Bedel in 1943 for Album I and by Maurice Fombeure in 1950 for Album II. A detailed monographic survey entitled Eekman, peintre, humaniste… et magicien was authored by Jean-Louis Monod and issued by Éditions Pierre Cailler in Geneva in 1969, four years before the artist's death in Paris in November 1973 following a retrospective at the Reflets Gallery in Brussels.

In 1989, the artist's daughter, Luce Eekman, established the non-profit association Le Sillon Nicolas Eekman to maintain public interest, organise retrospective displays across France and the Netherlands, and oversee the compilation of a catalogue raisonné. The association collaborated with Somogy on the volume Nicolas Eekman, peintre graveur in 2004. In 2002, the Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie published a study detailing his 1961 mural fresco executed for the drugstore at Paris Orly Airport under the patronage of Professor H. Griffon, depicting medicinal plants from around the world. The artist's biographical standing is further maintained in reference authorities such as the Benezit Dictionary of Artists.

Whether the catalogue raisonné project initiated by Le Sillon Nicolas Eekman has reached final publication is not established in the existing literature.

the recorded working language is French.

The authority associates the name with Expressionism, speculative fiction and realism.

Work by Nicolas Eekman is recorded in the collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Dordrechts Museum, Museum Arnhem and Print Collection.