Provenance: The works on paper offered in this auction by art dealer Art Dumay are all from the estate of artist Willem Oepts (1904-1988). The booklets come from the artist's southern French studio and came into the possession of the current owner 30 years ago. They may now be offered and consist of some 115 watercolours, drawings and sketches. Some drawings bear Oepts' studio stamp; these are the mostly worked-out copies. All other works on paper are also from the sketchbooks, a photograph of which is enclosed. This guarantees authenticity. The works are mostly from the period from 1935 onwards, when colourful motifs were central to his paintings.

Biography
The artist Wim Oepts is self-taught and works primarily as a graphic artist. Oepts earns his first spurs in the Dutch art world in the 1920s and 1930s, participating in exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among others. Numerous more exhibitions followed, nationally but also internationally.

'In France I felt liberated,' says Oepts, who first visited Paris in 1933 and later settled there permanently until his death in 1988. He was introduced to the work of (post-)impressionists and fauvists and was particularly drawn to the art of Bonnard, Matisse and Derain. When he is captivated by the southern light in the fishing village of Collioure in 1937, he changes