Carel de Nerée

The exhibition Anders dan de anderen features the intriguing oeuvre of Carel de Nerée tot Babberich (1880-1909). De Nerée’s drawings, which are among the most fascinating in Dutch art around 1900, evoke associations with great European fin-de-siècle artists such as Aubrey Beardsley, Jan Toorop and Gustav Klimt.

Carel de Nerée tot Babberich was a striking figure in The Hague around 1900. He grew up in a prominent family, was trained as a diplomat, but chose a more exciting life as an artist. That life was short, at 29 he died of tuberculosis.

By this time, he had probably identified as gay or bisexual. According to his friends, he was ‘different from the others’: in his time, code language for anything that deviated from the heteronorm. ‘Different’ is also at the heart of his work. His beautiful drawings reflect themes of queerness, gender fluidity and eroticism. He was inspired by modern European art and literature in which symbolism predominates: the search for a deeper meaning behind the visible reality of the world.