Queer Places:
Haringvliet 92A, 3011 TH Rotterdam, Netherlands
9633 Tripscompagnie, Netherlands
Dolf Henkesplein, 3072 AN Rotterdam, Netherlands

Roelof Lucas Johannes "Dolf" Henkes (Rotterdam, 14 November 1903 – Rotterdam, 9 January 1989) was a Dutch painter. He lived and worked almost all his life in Rotterdam and Katendrecht. Henkes' oeuvre tells the story of the world around him: the people and the port authority, portraits, still lifes, landscapes, the devastation in the port of Rotterdam, nude studies. During his lifetime Henkes sold more than a thousand works to private individuals and museums. In 1988 he left his studio collection (thirty-five hundred paintings and works on paper) to the Dutch state.

Dolf (Roelof Lucas Johannes) Henkes was born on 14 November 1903 in Rotterdam-Katendrecht, the son of a café owner. His father later ran a shoemaking business. The family was a convinced Roman Catholic. He had two sisters and a brother. He was in primary education. As a child he liked to draw. From 1916 to 1919 he was employed by a coppersmith. In addition, he followed the evening training to become a coppersmith / bank worker at the industrial education. From 1919 to 1926 he worked as a blacksmith, as a bank worker and occasionally in general cargo in the port (cotton, coal and ore). From 1926 to 1928 he sailed as third engineer on the coal ship Schieland. The sea made a deep impression. On board he drew and paints. In the ports that the ship called at, he visited cultural attractions. From 1929 to 1932 he accepted a job ashore as a (fine) banker. He drew and painted in his spare time. In 1929 he made his international debut by participating in an exhibition of Catholic art in London, organized by the Catholic Times newspaper. Around the same time, he had his first exhibition in the Roman Catholic home for sailors Stella Maris, then located on the Rechthuislaan on Katendrecht.

In 1932 he decided to follow his vocation and henceforth devoted himself entirely to art. In the 1930s he exhibited at Toonkamer Ad, among others. Dark in Rotterdam (1933), at the Amsterdam gallery Santee Landweer (1935) and in the foyer of Tuschinski's Rotterdam avant-garde film theatre Studio '32 (1936).

In 1934 he joined the progressive Rotterdam artists' group R'33, which between 1936 and 1940 museum director Dirk Hannema gave him the opportunity to exhibit in Museum Boymans (now: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) every two years. R'33 was disbanded in 1942. Henkes exhibited five times between 1936 and 1940 in group exhibitions of R'33, in museum Boymans (1936, 1938 and 1940), in the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1936) and at Pictura, Haarlem (1937).

From 1935 to 1937 he had regularly stays in Paris for a longer period of time. His work reflected the influences he acquired in Paris, in particular the work of El Greco. He was impressed by his painterly vision, his striking form formations and colour.

In 1937 he realized his first monumental commission in the new Feijenoord stadium by the architects Brinkman and Van der Vlugt. In the coffee room for invited guests (Olympia side) he painted four scenes from a football match.

He led a reclusive existence during the occupation years. Dolf Henkes and his brother Jan helped people in hiding. During the destruction of the ports in September 1944, he did not leave his studio. In many drawings and paintings he depicted the horrors of war, especially the destroyed ports. In the period around the liberation he was involved in the distribution of food and clothing in the neighborhood.

In 1947, shortly after the liberation, he traveled to Curaçao. There he made murals in the chapel of the Sint Elisabeth Gasthuis in Willemstad. This is followed by an assignment for wall decorations in the station building of the Dr. Albert Plesman airport in Hato, Curaçao. He then traveled through Mexico. The Mexican landscape and especially the people were an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Back in the Netherlands, he moved into a studio at Haringvliet 92a, henceforth his trusted work address. From 1948 he exhibited frequently: solo and group exhibitions in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Amersfoort, Dublin and Paris (in Paris in 1952 at art dealership Bernheim-jeune).

He received two large monumental commissions in 1948 and 1949: four murals for the Pavilion Rotterdam by project architects Van den Broek and Bakema at the manifestation Rotterdam Ahoy' (realized in 1950), and paintings in the smoke foyer of the Rotterdam (emergency) theater (realized in 1949-1954). In the paintings on Ahoy' he depicted four phases in the history of the port of Rotterdam: rise, flowering, destruction and future. In the theatre he incorporated impressions of his travels and scenes derived from his lifelong source of inspiration, the performing arts.

In 1950 he travelled through Ireland. The Irish landscape made a deep impression and inspired him permanently for his landscape paintings. Many foreign (nature) study trips follow, including to Scotland, France, Spain, Greece and Turkey. His travels invariably led to large series of sketches and studies of the landscape. A trip through Greece, in 1954, made a particularly deep impression. He also sought inspiration for his landscape paintings close to home: in the Biesbosch, on Vlieland, on the Linge.

From 1954 to 1977 he did a large number of monumental commissions, including: Hotel Delta, Vlaardingen (1954), Caltex, now Nerefco, Pernis (1955), Smith's Suikerwerkindustrie, Rotterdam-Overschie (1959), Stationspostkantoor, Rotterdam (1959-1960), Dijkzigt hospital, Rotterdam (1960), Primary Technical School, now Schoonhovens College, Schoonhoven (1960), Elektriciteitscentrale Waalhaven (1960-1961), Cebeco, Rotterdam (1962). Of his realized monumental work from these years, only six have been preserved in a reasonable condition. The remaining works have been destroyed or hidden from view by demolition or renovations.

In 1965 he had a retrospective exhibition at Museum Boymans-van Beuningen. From 1966 to 1967, Rotterdam-Katendrecht tensions were running high, as a result of the excesses of the prostitution business there. The Henkes family experienced a lot of nuisance from a neighboring brothel. Jan and Dolf Henkes became involved in some of the confrontations that occured frequently on 'the Cape' during that period.

In 1967 he had an exhibit in Graz (O.) and travelled through Austria and Yugoslavia. Back in the Netherlands he rented a second studio in Tripscompagnie, Groningen, near Muntendam. He regularly stayed there for a longer period of time. He kept this studio until the end of 1979.

In 1977 and 1978 he stayed in Curaçao to almost completely revise and restore the paintings in the chapel of the Sint Elisabeth Gasthuis. He received the Wolfert van Borselen medal from the city of Rotterdam from mayor Van der Louw, on the occasion of his 75th birthday.

In 1983 and 1984 he had a double exhibition in honor of his 80th birthday in the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and Westersingel 8, Rotterdam.

In 1987 Henkes left his studio collection (more than 3500 works) to the Dutch State. This collection is now managed by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands and consists of works on paper and paintings. See RCE for more information and images of all works in the Netherlands Collection.

In 1988 he had a retrospective exhibition at the Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, around his 85th birthday.

On 9 January 1989 Dolf Henkes died, less than a month after the conclusion of his exhibition at the Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen.

Work by Dolf Henkes is in the collections of: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, City Collection Rotterdam, Chabot Museum – Collection Schortemeijer, Historical Museum Rotterdam, Museum for Modern Art De Rietgors, Papendrecht, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and in many private collections in the Netherlands and abroad.

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1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dola_Dunsmuir