pencil and coloured chalk on handwritten postcard, sent by the artist from Paris to Aldo van Eyck on the 1st of February 1951, 10,2 x 14,8 cm.

Exhibited: Rotterdam, Nieuwe Instituut, “Built Homecoming”: The House of Aldo and Hannie van Eyck, 12 September 2024-15 January 2025; Literature: Aldo en Hannie van Eyck met Karel Appel in Middelburg, Stichting Beeldende Kunst Middelburg, 1992 (illustrated in b/w); Francis Strauven, Aldo van Eyck: relativiteit en verbeelding, Amsterdam, 1994, p. 144 (illustrated in colour)

For other works by the artist with the subject of 'Vragende Kinderen/Questioning children', see lot numbers 1011 and 1045. The series of works from 1948/1949 with the subject of 'Vragende Kinderen/Questioning Children' were inspired by the sight of begging children during a train journey through Germany that Karel Appel made soon after the end of World War II (see the website of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, for more information on this subject). In his postcard from Paris, Appel asks Aldo for the addresses of his landlord and a few others who he needs to contact before returning to Amsterdam in a few months' time. He describes to Aldo how he is working hard, but cannot afford to buy new materials due to lack of finances. Appel and his wife Tony Sluyter are living 'like hermits, we don't go anywhere and don't see anybody'.