Dick Ket

Dick Ket (October 10, 1902 – September 15, 1940) was a Dutch painter noted for his still lifes and self-portraits in a style he referred to as New Realism. he was prevented from traveling by debilitating weakness as well as by phobias, and lived secluded in his parents' house in Bennekom after 1930. Exposed to modern art mainly through reproductions, he concentrated on painting still lifes and self-portraits. His health worsened in his last decade, leading to his early death in Bennekom in 1940.

Works While Ket's earliest paintings are impressionistic in style, he was influenced decisively by the art of the Neue Sachlichkeit in 1929, and thereafter painted in a style he called New Realism, which has affinities with magic realism.

Ket completed approximately 140 paintings, including forty self-portraits. As a result of his technical experimentation with different formulations and additives to the glaze medium, some of his paintings are not completely dry after six decades. In his self-portraits the progressive symptoms of his physical deterioration, such as cyanosis and nail clubbing, are apparent.

Museums holding works by Dick Ket include the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Museum Arnhem, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.