Bram Van Velde was born Abraham Gerardus Van Velde in 1895. He was from Zoeterwoude, which is near Leiden, the Netherlands. Van Velde's paintings from the 1950s period are a lot like those of the contemporary works of both Matisse and Picasso in view. Bram Van Velde was known for creating abstract paintings that had very intense colors about them.. Bram Van Velde was a member of the Ecole de Paris, but the body of his creative work is something, which does definitely reside in a place that is in between expressionism and surrealism. It was in the 1960s, when he did evolved into a totally different kind of art, and this art was no other than very expressive colorful abstract art. At the tender age of 12, Bram Van Velde was put into the serviceof an apprentice for a painting and interior company called Schaijk & Kramers that was in The Hague. It was the co-owner of this company that did encourage the talent of the young Van Velde. Eduard H. Kramers and his son Wijnand were both equally lovers and collectors of fine art. They had a true appreciation for it. These two people were the ones who would become Bram Van Velde's artistic patrons until 1934. Van Velde was exempted from service in World War Ii due to the fact, he was the sole breadwinner for his family, and this permitted him to continue doing his work as both a painter and a decorator. He would go on to enroll in the Mauritshuis of The Hague, and this did allow him to do one thing, this one thing was to copy masterworks in the collection. Van Velde did have his first solo exhibition in Paris, on March 21, 1946. This solo exhibition was at the Galerie Mai and it featured 25 canvases. These were nearly all of, Van Velde's body of work, up until this date in time. However, it wasn't until 1961, that Van Velde did start to attain a certain level of critical success for his artwork. Van Velde was definitely one of the great artists beyond great. Read Less