...; dealer Frans Leidelmeijer, Amsterdam; from which to A.A. Streefland, Koog aan de Zaan; by whom donated to the museum, 2024

Object number: BK-2024-90

Credit line: Gift of A.A. Streefland, Koog aan de Zaan

The present vase was made in January 1929, during the final period of Chris Lebeau’s activity in the art of glassblowing. This versatile Amsterdam artist had begun his adventure in glass only five years before, on 1 December 1923, at the funeral of the artist Karel de Bazel. It was there that he crossed paths with P.M. Cochius (1874-1938), the ambitious and idealistic director of Glasfabriek Leerdam, who invited Lebeau to come create designs for his glass factory, like De Bazel before him.

In 1924, Lebeau produced a series of ‘vormglas’ – glass objects formed with a mould – on behalf of Glasfabriek Leerdam. A year later, he began work on what were to be his first unique pieces, created in close collaboration with the factory’s glassblowers. Glass designer Andries Copier (1901-1991) had already been producing unique pieces for Leerdam since 1923. This was pioneering work in a country like the Netherlands, where no tradition of art glass had previously existed. The majority of these objects were created outside the factory’s regular operating hours, in the evening. They were very experimental in character, with various decoration techniques developed during the making process.

Both designers worked with craquelé, a process that entails exposing the hot, molten glass to the vapour of a metal chloride, causing a thin iridescent layer (akin to a soap bubble) to form on the glass. As the glass is further blown, this layer bursts open, resulting in small metal particles visible across the surface in fragmentary form. However, this technique – along with other issues – eventually led to the end of the collaboration. A disagreement arose when Lebeau exhibited several of the pieces with craquelé, but without naming Copier as the technique’s developer. Lebeau then decided to cease his activities at Leerdam.

Seeking a new collaboration, Lebeau approached L. Moser und Söhne, a glass factory in Adolf near Winterberg (now Vimperk in the Czech Republic), where the glassblowers were more skilled. Lebeau would make three separate sojourns in Bohemia, the first in January 1926, even after Cochius asked him to return to Leerdam. In Bohemia, glass-blowers practiced their art when standing, unlike in Leerdam, where the hot molten glass was modelled while sitting in a special glassblower’s chair. The standing method allowed Lebeau to play a far more active role on the work floor and model the glass himself. Always equipped with his own ‘explosives case’ of chemicals, Lebeau drew sketches in the train and managed to further refine the craquelé method. The present vase displays a special combination of various decorative techniques. A subtle colour gradient, ranging from pink on the bottom to yellow at the top, has been applied by means of colour powders. A regular pattern of round and oval air bubbles is created in an internal layer. Additionally, Lebeau has used black antimony craquelé, a form of craquelé achieved by exposing the hot glass bubble to a vapour of antimony chloride prior to expanding the bubble by blowing.

Upon Lebeau’s return, his life partner at this time, Ditte van der Vies-Heyting (1877-1942), exhibited the series of ‘hand-formed glass’ at the De Bron art gallery in The Hague. The exhibition was received with wide acclaim. An issue of Wendingen devoted to the series praised Lebeau’s spirit of free experimentation and high technical refinement. Works described as ‘vases where air bubbles were arranged into beautiful arabesques’ possibly refers to the present object, as well as a similar, white vase in the Kunstmuseum The Hague. Subsequent attempts to organize a sojourn in Bohemia proved futile. For this reason, the present vase is among the last pinnacle works of Lebeau’s glass art.

Maartje Brattinga, 2026
This entry was first published as a ‘Recent Acquisition’ in The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 74 (2026) no. 1, pp. 96-97 (no. 14)

Literature
Mechteld de Bois, Chris Lebeau (1878­-1945), exh. cat. Assen (Drents Museum) 1987
Just Havelaar, ‘Lebeau’s Glas’, Wendingen 10 (1929), no. 2, pp. 2-18

M. Brattinga, 2026, 'Chris Lebeau, Vase, Winterberg, 1929', in Acquisitions Published in the Rijksmuseum Bulletin, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200880736