Laren School
The Laren School is the name of an art colony located in the Dutch village Laren in Het Gooi near Hilversum. Also known for its pilgrimage church - St. John's Church, from around 1870 - the artists of the Hague School chose the inhabitants of Laren and the landscape as the subject of their art.
Discovered by painter Jozef Israëls, it was distinguished by its unspoiled and outstanding design diversity and it was considered ideally situated by many members of the Hague School. After 1898, it was rediscovered by young artists known as the second generation of the Laren School, their work extending far into the 20th century. This colony of artists is considered to be significant in Dutch Impressionism, being seen as part of this international movement. The ideas fostered in the area found their way to the Modernist art movement.
The first generation of the Laren School
The industrialisation of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and other regions of the Netherlands affected landscapes that had remained untouched for centuries, many of which quickly disappeared, and with them the inspiration for earlier forms of landscape and genre painting.
After 15 years of fame, from 1855 to 1870, the artists of the Oosterbeek School were looking for a new place of work. Sometime around 1870, painter Jozef Israëls discovered the village of Laren. He visited often with his son Isaac, whom he instructed in outdoor painting.[1] His enthusiasm for Laren, the surrounding landscape and agricultural activity was infectious, being communicated to his associates at the Pulchri Studio. The first to follow him were Albert Neuhuys and Anton Mauve in 1877.[2] and 1882.[3] Later Hein Kever, Willem Steelink, Hendrik Valkenburg, Wally Moes, Etha Fles, Arina Hugenholtz and Tony Offermans followed. Not to be forgotten are Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch and Willem Roelofs. Thus, the Laren School as an artists colony was born.[4]
Unlike Jozef Israëls, some of his friends settled down here. Anton Mauve and Albert Neuhuys helped them. Their Laren-inspired works were shown in the Pulchri Studio and affiliated galleries to the public.
While Neuhuys concentrated on farm life as genre subject the others turned to the landscape. Art historians describe this as Laren Style, which is regarded as part of the Hague School.
Around 1884, Max Liebermann, the first foreign painter, came to work in Gooiland. Liebermann had been friend with Jozef Israël for a long time.
Around 1885, the first colony ceased to produce new work based on Laren and its environs.
The second generation of the Laren School
Around 1898, Laren was rediscovered by a group of young painters who gave new life to the Laren Style school of painting for the next 40 years, including Otto van Tussenbroek, Evert Pieters, Bernard de Hoog, Hendrik Theodorus de Court Onderwater (1877–1905), Andre Broedelet, Salomon Garf, Franz Deutmann, Lammert van der Tonge (1871–1937), Jaap Dooijewaard and Bernard Pothast (1882–1966), most of whom were genre painters in the agricultural tradition, like Neuhuy. But some were landscape painters, notably Cornelis Vreedenburgh, Gerrit van Blaaderen and Frans Langeveld.
The second generation of the Laren School diverged, one group following the traditions of the Hague School[5] while the rest responded to the new international school of Impressionism, embracing modernity with an enthusiasm now considered typical of the Netherlands.
In 1903, under the initiative of August Johannes le Gras (1864–1915), the Gooische Painters Association "De Tien" (The Ten) was founded, Gooiland being a region of the province of North Holland which includes Laren. This group organized exhibitions across the country to open up a larger section for the work of its members.[6] Among them were Derk Meeles, Toon de Jong, David Schulman and Emanuel van Beever to this tens shaft.
William Henry Singer, an American painter and art collector, came to Laren in 1901. In 1911, he built the villa, called De wilde Zwanen (The wild swans) which, after World War II, was converted into the Singer Museum and concert hall.[7]
At the place, individual painters who differed with their style from the mainstream of the Impressionism, created Co Breman and Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig, landscapes in the style of Pointillism and Luminism. Johan Coenraad Heyen Brock specialized in the representation of factories. For modernists like Piet Mondriaan, Jan Sluyters and Leo Gestel this studio and location was significant in the direction they took in their art.
In 1921, "The Association of Visual Artists Laren Blaricum" was founded by Co Breman. In 1935, under the direction of Schulzman, the Gooische Painters Association fractured, the members forming several distinct groups. August Johannes le Gras specialised in African landscapes and animals. Jan Pieter Veth, on the other hand, specialised in portraits, while Douwe Komter specialised in still life.
Today the Singer Museum exhibits works of the Laren School, including some by the above-mentioned painters.
About the name
From art collectors and authors, the term is often used for all active in Laren, and as shorthand for the continuation of Hague School and Oosterbeek School. (The Hague School arose about ten years earlier than Laren School.) Several founders of this artist colony — Jozef Israels and his son Isaac Israëls, along with Albert Neuhuys and Anton Mauve — were already known as the Hague painters.
In Laren was the countryside main theme of landscape painters. Therefore, the term 'Laren' applies primarily as a place of landscape painting. Essential to the Laren School is the lightening of color by adding gold yellow, red and blue. This succeeded the Grey period of the Hague School.
A striking feature of the popular interior scenes depicting a romantic view of social life in this tough region of Gooiland.
The palette employed set these works firmly in the tradition of the first 'golden age' of painting in the Netherlands.
This artists of the Laren School are linked together by the relationship between their ideas of art, style and techniques.
Shown painters in Singer Museum to Laren
- Marius Bauer (1867–1932)
- Johannes Bosboom (1817–1891)
- George Hendrik Breitner (1857–1923)
- Arthur Henri Christiaan Briët (1867–1939)
- Franz Wilhelm Maria Deutmann (1867–1915)
- Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriël (1828–1903)
- August Johannes le Gras (1864–1915)
- Hein Kever (1854–1922)
- Jacobus Hendricus Maris (1837–1899)
- Johannes Albert Neuhuys (1844–1914)[8]
- Anton Lodewijk George Offermans (1854–1911)
- Ferdinand Gustaaf Willem Oldewelt (1857–1935)
- David Oyens (1842–1902)
- Evert Pieters (1856–1932)
- Paul Philip Rink (1862–1903)
- Cornelius Rudolf Hendrik Spoor (1867–1928)
- Emmanuel Ernest Geradus van der Ven (1866–1944)
- Jan Visser (1856–1938)
- Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch (1824–1903)
References
- ↑ In this relationship, the successful system of the School of Barbizon reflects — so the painting lessons of the master and his pupil in the nature.
- ↑ Nina Lübbren: Rural artists colonies in Europe, 1870 to 1910, Manchester University Press, 2001. p 170
- ↑ Anton Mauve - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
- ↑ At that time, art colonies were all over the Netherlands, but they should never get the meaning of Kortenhoef, Laren, Oosterbeek or Scheveningen.
- ↑ The art historians do attribute to this generation of painters to the 4th generation of the Hague School, such as defined by Leeuw, Sillevis and Dumas.
- ↑ Because they belonged neither to an artist nor a cooperative association (Pulchri Studio etc.) they were forced to go this way.
- ↑ Holland Theaterweb
- ↑ Albert Neuhuys lived and worked for a longer period in Laren, too — see Ronald de Leeuw, p. 263.
Biography
- Leeuw, Ronald de; Sillervis, John and Dumas, Charles (1983): The Hague School: Dutch Masters of the Nineteenth Century, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, ISBN 978-0-297-78219-3.
- Wright, Christopher (1980): Paintings in Dutch museum, Philip Wilson Publishers Liumited, London, ISBN 978-90-290-1303-1
- Heyting, Lien (2004): De wereld in een dorp - schilders, schrijvers en wereldverbeteraars in Laren en Blaricum, Meulenhoff, ISBN 978-90-290-4856-9.
- Denninger-Schreuder, Carole (2003): Schilders van Laren, Bussum, THOTH - Uitgeverij, ISBN 978-90-6868-327-1.
- Koenraads, Jan P. (1985): Laren en zijn schilders: kunstenaars rond Hamdorff, Laren, Boekhandel Judi Kluvers, ISBN 978-90-71160-02-8.