Robert De Niro

What is the purpose of a good cigar, a delicious glass of wine and a skillfully created work of art other than to take a break and enjoy the moment? In this large painting, Robert De Niro is holding a large Havana.

The El Gusto cigars magazine wrote: “The portrait of Robert De Niro that Peter Engels painted is intriguing. It’s damn good. Not resembling, no, just the real Robert De Niro. A portrait has to be right. Portrait art is merciless: it has to be spot-on. The sepia effect of Peter Engels’ paintings is reminiscent of the color palette of downtown Havana. ”

Peter Engels says: “That is why I also call my portraits ‘Vintage Portraits’. The sepia effect takes you back in time. And back to the essence of art. If you stand very close to the painting, you will also notice red and blue and green through those typical sepia colors.

And just feel. The painting has a very coarse texture. That’s because I paint with the pallet knife. An old technique with which you put the paint very thickly on the canvas with a wide kind of knife. When the painting is finished, I carve my signature in the wet paint.”

El Gusto: “It is wonderful to be able to really feel the work. The closer you get to the painting, the more abstract it becomes. When you go back, it seems like the real De Niro is staring at you, smoking his cigar.”

Peter Engels: “The pendulum of the art clock returns to the figurative, the narrative, the artistic in the real sense. Both in painting and in literature. People want real stories again. I consciously oppose the far-fetched and sensationalism. Paintings that require explanation miss their mark.