Posted by Mario (Site Owner) at 24/04/04 18:12:
You are probably familiar with the "Van der Syde" portrait of an exotic girl that can be seen next to the JH Lynch pictures in Clockwork Orange:
http://www.quasimondo.com/archives/clockwork_orange_lynch_2.php
Closeup:
http://www.quasimondo.com/archives/jhlynch_clockwork.jpg
Its style is very similar to JH Lynch, so I first mistook it for one of his paintings and guessed, that "Van der Syde" might be another pseudonym of Lynch. Well, this has turned out to be a false assumption:
I was contacted by Lance Vandersyde, the grandson of the artist Gerritt Van der Syde. He told me the original of that painting is in his family's possession. His grandfather, who died in the 1960's had Dutch ancestry and lived in Streatham in London: "He was a good commercial artist but not much of a businessman, and never knew when to sell outright and when to make a deal with royalties." So as he sold the rights for commercial reproduction on this painting he only made a few pounds, even though the print was sold by the thousands. Apart from this romantic style (very 40's) he did a lot of work for advertising and his best pictures are probably the ones done for Ovaltine. Here is one of Van der Sydes paintings:
http://www.jhlynch.org/img/Vandersyde.jpg
Maybe Lance will be able to provide us with more information and pictures in the future.
Posted by Helen Brooks (Member) at 05/09/05 16:18:
thank you - I love your grandfathers art.
Posted by timbo (Member) at 03/01/06 19:49:
Hello,
Gerritt Van Der Syde was my grandfather too! Gerritt had four children. Lance must be Basil's son as I met Derek once and he doesn't have any children that I'm aware of. Gerritt's last two children were girls from his second marriage, one of whom is my mother.
If you type Van Der Syde into google images, then the first image that comes up - that one hung in the spare room at my grandmother's bungalow until her death.
Incidentally, I'm pretty sure that Gerritt died of a heart attack in 1971 (a decade before my time I'm afraid) just when his wife had popped into the kitchen to make a cup of tea.
Gerritt was born in 1897 and served in World War 1 as a carriage driver for medics. Up until his death, he still held a license to drive a four-horse carriage.
If anyone has some contact details for lance, I'd be interested in getting in touch: after all, I've been a bit caught up in all of the genealogy stuff too.
Tim Morgan
Posted by AllyParis (Member) at 19/11/07 11:15:
I'd also be interested in getting in touch with Lance Vandersyde.......... we worked together in Australia over twenty years ago.....
Alix R