Pencil drawing, 'Manolete' famous bullfighter by Willem Wagenaar

Pencil drawing, with monogram of the artist WW and date 1942. 'Manolete'Dimensions: 35 cm x 27.5 cmProvenance: estate of the artist

Willem Wagenaar (1909–1999) was a Dutch painter, gallery owner, drawing teacher and surrealist. He turned his small gallery Nord in the Vinkenburgstraat in Utrecht into the magical centre of Dutch surrealism from around 1930. Here he sold surrealist magazines Variétés and Sélection, but also furniture by Gerrit Rietveld, posters by Cassandre and films by Charlie Chaplin. It became the meeting place for painters such as Jopie Moesman, Willem van Leusden, Pyke Koch and Louis Wijmans. His work often took place in secret, surrounded by a veil of mystery. He started an art academy in Utrecht, which was moved to Morocco around 1938. Barely three years after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) the era of Manolete began. Manuel Rodriguez Sanchez, Manolete, was one of the most important bullfighters of the twentieth century. Around 1942, the Utrecht painter Willem Wagenaar must have managed to immortalize Manolete on paper. The Centraal Museum in Utrecht owns an oil portrait of Manolete painted by Wagenaar.