For the first time in Antwerp

ICON GALLERY opens its doors in September 2026 with the work of Peter Donkersloot (Arnhem, 1959). A painter who applies the technique of the old masters to the icons of our own time.

A painter who was something else first

Peter Donkersloot grew up between the woods of the Veluwe and the water-rich land of the Betuwe. Those two landscapes have never left his work: they return in his Dutch landscapes, with their wide skies mirrored in still water.

That he would become a draughtsman was more or less a given — his father, Piet Donkersloot, was a well-known illustrator. After the Arnhem art academy in the late seventies, Peter went to work in advertising, including at the renowned agency FHV-BBDO. It was skilled work, and it paid. But in the evenings he painted, and the painting became ever harder to push aside.

By the mid-eighties, the tension had built. When his father died in 1986, the decision was made: he would take the risk. At the end of 1987 he left advertising behind and committed himself fully to his own work.

He has painted at a high tempo ever since. Anyone looking for him will find him in his studio — by day, and above all by night.

Layer upon layer

The heart of Donkersloot's work lies in his technique, and that technique is older than he is.

He paints in the tradition of layer upon layer: transparent layers of paint built up one over the other. This creates depth in the image and warms the colours — a result you cannot achieve with paint straight from the tube. Light passes through the upper layers and is reflected back by what lies beneath.

The old masters worked this way too, with oil paint they made themselves. They sometimes had to wait weeks for a layer to dry enough to continue. Donkersloot achieves the same effect with fast-drying acrylic, which lets him keep the pace his way of working demands.

He also reworks existing images: screenprints after works by the old masters, which he paints over wholly or in part into something new. The original remains present as an underlayer, but what emerges is unmistakably of our time.

That same idea underpins his hand-embellished giclées: an archival print on canvas as the ground, after which the artist applies brushwork, texture and accents by hand. No two examples are alike.

Icons

Donkersloot paints faces everyone knows.

Marlon Brando as Don Corleone. Marilyn Monroe. Muhammad Ali. Sophia Loren. The film scenes and mafia portraits that made his name and won him a wide audience. Alongside these: cityscapes — Amsterdam in particular, in the tradition of Breitner — landscapes, flowers and animals.

What binds these subjects is not the genre but the treatment: heavy contrasts, warm and muted tones, sometimes gold leaf catching the light in the room. In his hands a familiar face is rebuilt, layer after layer, until it has become something other than the image it came from.

The painted edge

A hallmark connoisseurs recognise instantly: in many of his works the image continues around the side of the canvas. The extra-deep edges are painted right around, making a frame unnecessary. The painting is complete as it is and hangs on the wall unframed.

In other works he chooses the exact opposite: a heavy, hand-painted black baroque frame that brings the portrait back to the scale of a cabinet piece.

In his own words

On what he is ultimately after, Donkersloot says he is searching for the ultimate painting, the work that cannot be captured in words. "There has to be a stage where words stop and the painting begins."

At ICON GALLERY

His exhibitions are usually sold out, and his work increasingly finds its way abroad.

In the gallery we show the full spectrum: unique, hand-painted originals in large format, hand-embellished giclées in various sizes, work in hand-painted baroque frames, and the compact thirty-by-thirty square. From first purchase to collector's piece.

All works are signed and come with a certificate of authenticity.

Visit the gallery in Antwerp, or view the collection online.