Title: Portrait En profil
Artist: Louis Soonius (1883-1956)
Medium: Pencil on paper, ca 1900, signed lower right Dimensions: 47 x 57cm incl. frame, 35 x 45cm excl. frame
Price on request
Biography;
Lodewijk (Louis) Soonius (1883-1956) is a draftsman and painter from The Hague who is best known for his beach scenes with playing children and donkeys. Lodewijk Soonius and his twin sister Margaretha were born in 1883. Soonius grew up in a Roman Catholic family in The Hague. His father, Wilhelmus Johannes Soonius, was a vegetable grower and his mother, Maria Amerentia Hartwig, took care of the children full-time.
His first drawings date from 1900, when he was not yet 17 years old. In it he captures the changing cityscape of The Hague. In the same year he started as a painter at the Plateelbakkerij Rozenburg. The hour books testify to his drawing passion: full of sketches of sets and interesting figures. At Rozenburg Soonius met Chris Beekman with whom he became friends. Around 1905 he started his lessons at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, where he associated with the Frisian Ids Wiersma. In 1913 Soonius won the Royal Subsidy for Free Painting, the present Royal Award for Free Painting. This subsidy allowed Soonius to fully focus on painting, as evidenced by his resignation from Rozenburg. Together with Chris Beekman and Aris Knikker they rented a studio in the Noorderbeekdwarsstraat, but this was short-lived because a fierce argument, the cause of which is unknown, caused Soonius and Beekman to quarrel.
After the First World War, Soonius joined the Haagsche Sketch Club where he often exhibited nudes. There he gained more fame, which brought him into contact with various art dealers who brought his work to the attention, such as Kunsthandel Kreijns & Zoon’s at Delftschevaart 40.
In the late 1920s Soonius got into financial difficulties, which led to extra income making illustrations for novels at publisher J.N. Voorhoeve. The 1930s, on the other hand, were very fruitful. Soonius had various exhibitions, including at Kunsthandel Sena and Huize Koninginnegracht 77, his childhood drawings of The Hague were purchased in 1933 by the Association for Monument Preservation and in 1939 Soonius painted the portrait of Queen Wilhelmina for the Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij, which was widely distributed in all national and regional newspapers were measured. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Soonius’ work was on display in the exhibition Our art of the present in the Rijksmuseum. In the 1950s Soonius would continue to paint until he died in 1956.
Title: ‘Zandvoort’
Artist: Willem (Wim) Steijn (1914-1980)
Medium: Pencil on paper, ca 1940, signed top right
Dimensions: 30 x 37 cm incl. frame, 22 x 28.5 cm excl. frame
Price on request
Biography:
Wim Steijn, painter, draftsman and graphic artist, was born in Assendelft in 1914 and grew up in the wide Dutch polder landscape of Jisp en Wormer. That open landscape has never left him. It influenced his later work. He received his first drawing lessons from the Zaanse painter Jaap Kaal, he took private lessons from Henk Gorter in Amsterdam and, having left for Haarlem, he came into contact with the legendary Haarlem art dealer J.H. de Bois. He offered him an agreement that allowed him to devote himself entirely to art. He took painting lessons from Henri Frederic Boot, who stimulated him and exerted a great influence on him. H.F. Boot also taught Kees Verweij, with whom Wim Steijn worked for four years and with whom he temporarily shared a studio.
Shortly after the war, Wim married Janna Koolman and he moved to the 17th century old hunting lodge Groot Bentveld, where he lived until 1980. Groot Bentveld, with its overgrown splendor, the old chestnut trees, in the vicinity of the dunes and the sea. In this environment he worked continuously.
At the age of 50 he met Ger de Leeuw, who together with H.F.Boot had an art gallery in Haarlem, “Galerie Uittenhout”. Ger became the muse in his life, a never-ending source of inspiration for Wim. For seventeen years he painted, drew and etched her as his only model. The marriage to Ger ushered in a new era of creativity. She marked a turning point in his life and was his great source of inspiration as an artist.
Many exhibitions in museums followed, at home and abroad and he received many prizes.
He occupied an important place in post-war painting. His work is included in numerous museums.
Title: Mother and Child
Artist: Jan Pieterszoon Franken (1896-1977)
Medium: Charcoal on paper, 1923, signed lower left
Dimensions: 57 x 77 cm incl. frame, 46 x 60 cm excl. frame
Price on request
Biography:
Jan Pieterszoon (Pzn) Franken (preferred names: Jan Franken Pzn, Joannes Petrus Josephus Franken; monogrammed as FPZN, FPzn, FP) was born on November 18, 1896 in The Hague and also died there on February 27, 1977. He was the son of Piet Franken. The painter from The Hague lived long enough to experience various artistic movements, from which he was occasionally influenced. Nevertheless, his work is recognizable.
He was educated at the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague and was also a student of Frits Jansen. He himself later became the teacher of Mies Biermasz and Charles Stok.
Franken was active as an artist in The Hague throughout his life
In addition to being a graphic artist and wood engraver, the versatile artist Franken was also an illustrator, pastelist, painter, draftsman and maker of woodcuts.
His production was therefore also very diverse: book illustrations, ex-libri, flowers, (flower and fruit) still lifes, figure representations, nude figures, portraits, interiors and (winter) landscapes. The figurative style that had been taught to him during his training remained characteristic of his style. Mies Biermasz and Charles Stok were his pupils.
He received several honorable mentions (including at international exhibitions of woodcarvings in Warsaw in 1933 and 1935) and was also awarded the Willink van Collen Prize in 1925 and first prize in the Kinder-ex-libris competition in 1935.
Franken was a member of Pulchri Studio in The Hague, of De Groep in The Hague, of De Haagsche Kunstkring, the Association for the Promotion of Graphic Arts ‘De Grafische’, of the Artists Association De Ondependenten and of the Dutch Federation of Professional Associations of Artists.
His work can be found in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and the Singer Museum in Laren.
Mentioned in Vollmer, Scheen, Saur, Jacobs, Scharten.
Title: Horse in the meadow
Artist: Willem Adriaan van Konijnenburg (1868-1943)
Medium: Pencil on paper, 1936, unsigned, provenance available Dimensions: 30 x 37cm incl. frame, 14 x 19cm excl. frame Provinance: This drawing comes from the collection of Jacoba van der Vegt (1897-1970). Jacoba was the favorite cousin of Willem van Konijnenburg.
Price on request
Biography:
Willem Adriaan van Konijnenburg (The Hague, 11 February 1868 – there, 28 February 1943) was a Dutch visual artist.
During the interwar period (1919-1939), Willem van Konijnenburg, together with Jan Toorop and Jan Sluijters, was one of the national and international figureheads of modern Dutch art.
Education
Willem received his first drawing and painting lessons from his mother Sara Louise van Konijnenburg-Vrijthoff. From 1884 he followed the MO course in drawing at the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague, where he obtained his certificate on 16 October 1886.
Willem van Konijnenburg started his career as a landscape painter. He found inspiration for his landscapes in and around Meerssen in South Limburg. The influence of the artists’ movements the Barbizon School and the Hague School are visible in the landscapes. At the same time, Van Konijnenburg gives his landscape art his own twist by opting for the South Limburg landscape, monumentality, clear lines, large formats and an idiosyncratic color palette of often nuanced ocher and brown colours. These characteristics were further developed in the 20th century into his typical and idiosyncratic visual language. In addition to landscapes, Van Konijnenburg painted portraits and cityscapes of Maastricht, among other things.
As a starting artist, Van Konijnenburg had little commercial success, as a result of which many paintings ended up with family, friends and acquaintances. His limited recognition as an artist was compensated by his active participation in cultural life in The Hague, in which Pulchri Studio and Haagsche Kunstkring played an important role. He was a member of both artists’ associations. Throughout his life, Van Konijnenburg spent a lot of time in South Limburg. Gerard Knuttel, then director of the Gemeentemuseum, wrote: ‘His life is divided between his home town and the Geuldal’.
Applied art
In order to increase his income, Van Konijnenburg started working on commission in addition to teaching. He made cartoons for the weekly magazines De Kroniek (1895-1897) and De Nederlandsche Spectator (1896-1901). From 1896 to 1904 he designed posters for the ‘Stoomboot-Reederij Fop Smit & Co. In addition, Van Konijnenburg earned money with murals, designs of ceiling ornaments, book decorations, magazine covers and illustrations. In an interview, Van Konijnenburg called these activities ‘applied art’.
Influences
After 1900, Willem van Konijnenburg began to study extensively in a wide range of subjects such as philosophy, ethics, logic and aesthetics. He was also strongly inspired by Renaissance and Egyptian art. His religious work – which dates from after 1915 – shows the influence of the Flemish Primitives. With new friends such as art critic Albert Plasschaert and the poet P.C. Boutens he reinforced the image of his erudition, intelligence and civilization.
Breakthrough
Willem van Konijnenburg made his breakthrough in 1917 when he showed thirty works from the period 1910-1917 in Kunstzaal Kleykamp in The Hague. Almost all works came from the collection of G.F.H. van Kooten Kok, the most important collector during the artist’s lifetime. From this breakthrough exhibition, Van Konijnenburg was mentioned in the same breath as Jan Toorop, Johan Thorn-Prikker, Antoon Derkinderen and Richard Roland Holst. Thanks to the impression the portraits of poet P.C. Boutens, art critic Albert Plasschaert and his mother made during the aforementioned exhibition, Van Konijnenburg became a much sought-after portraitist. The number of national and international exhibitions of his work increased. He was also regularly asked to sit on various committees and juries of competitions such as the Prix de Rome.
Monumental works
In the 1920s Willem van Konijnenburg was given the opportunity to prove himself with large monumental works. One of those assignments included Zechariah from 1920-1921 for the Dutch Israelite Community. In the basic idea behind this work of art, Van Konijnenburg showed a strong affinity with the thinking of J.A. the Sleeve.
From 1924 to 1936, Van Konijnenburg worked with Joan Collette, Antoon Molkenboer, Georg Rueter and Henri van der Stok, among others, on eleven stained glass windows for the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft. The most famous window, the Wilhelmina window, was unveiled in 1927. From 1924 to 1938, the artist worked on The triumph of Thomas van Aquino, a painting (335 x 430) for the Dominicanenkloosterkerk in Zwolle. When asked why this process took fifteen years, Van Konijnenburg answered dryly: ‘I’m not good for rush work’. In 2017 a book was published about the genesis of this work: The triumph of Thomas van Aquino. A painting by Willem van Konijnenburg
Between 1933 and 1941 he designed seven tapestries for the auditorium of the University of Utrecht. At the same time he designed two memorial windows on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of Queen Wilhelmina’s reign for the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam (1938). These windows were executed by Joep Nicolas. In September 1940, the relief Honor the Divine Light in the revelations of art was handed over in the hall of Kunstmuseum Den Haag. The relief was designed by Van Konijnenburg and executed by Dirk Bus.
Teacher
Willem van Konijnenburg was active as a private tutor throughout his career. In the twentieth century Jeanne Bieruma Oosting, Ru Parè, Willem van den Berg, J.F.E. ten Klooster, David Bautz, Hein von Essen, Henri van der Stok and the illustrator Rie Cramer to his students. His students’ work has been shown at national and international exhibitions. Van Konijnenburg was often criticized in the press for being too dominant as a teacher. The influence of Van Konijnenburg can indeed often be seen in the work of his students, especially David Bautz. Jeanne Bieruma Oosting said in an interview that as a student of Willem van Konijnenburg you had to stand firm in your shoes. His most famous student was Queen Wilhelmina in the years 1921-1922. In 1931 Van Konijnenburg put together a retrospective exhibition of her work that could be seen in almost every provincial capital. The exhibition was also shown abroad in an adapted form.
Later years
From 1940, Willem van Konijnenburg has been making pietas, among other things. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he takes the position, (as he has always done), that an artist should keep out of politics. The catalog of the Kultuurkamer shows that Van Konijnenburg registers. The registration file was drawn up on 7 October 1942 and was not processed due to the chaotic situation at the offices of the departments of the Kultuurkamer. Registration is voluntary, but those who do not register are prohibited from practicing their profession. This measure is a reason for many to register in order not to become without pay. In practice, therefore, there is by no means always an idealistic motivation to become a member of the Kultuurkamer. Information comes from NIOD).
On Sunday, February 28, 1943, Willem van Konijnenburg passed away in the presence of his wife Netty van Konijnenburg-Kempers and nieces Jacoba van der Vegt and Jet Bernet-Kempers.[4] He is buried at Nieuw Eykenduynen in The Hague. After her husband’s death, Netty discovers a letter in which Van Konijnenburg expresses his wish not to show his work for thirty years. Netty has always lived in the house on Jan van Riebeekstraat in Bezuidenhout, where the couple has lived since 1897. After the death of her husband, she receives visitors for one hour a week for Museum Willem A. van Konijnenburg in the parterre of her house. The studio in the Hofje van Nieuwkoop on the Prinsegracht in The Hague left Netty intact until her death in 1963. Willem van Konijnenburg is then largely forgotten.
Museum property
The largest collections of Van Konijnenburg are located in: Kunstmuseum Den Haag
Drents Museum Assen
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam.
In addition, the following museums, among others, have work by Willem van Konijnenburg in their collections:
Municipal Museum Amsterdam
Museum Catharijneconvent Utrecht
Limburg Museum Venlo
Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht
Museum Jan Cunen Oss
Central Museum Utrecht
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium Brussels
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich
National Museum of Serbia Belgrade
Title: Sawmills outside Amsterdam
Artist: Jan Hillebrand Wijsmuller (1855-1925)
Medium: Black and coloured chalk, with some white gouache for touches of light, ca.1878, signed lower-right with chalk
Size: 54cm x 74cm excl. frame, 66cm x 86cm incl. frame
Provenance: Auction (Fred Muller) J. Wijsmuller/15-17 Dec. ’25 Coll. (Gerard van?) V. Tienhoven.’ =: Studio J. H. Wijsmuller
Conditie: very good (a single minimal fraying edge, two small sections of tape residue verso above)
Price on request
Wijsmuller is generally considered a late Hague School painter. However, he has a much lighter palette, and a less sentimental and sober approach that gives his work a pleasant tone of light and air. His realism gives much of his work a historical and documentary character. This beautiful drawing is an excellent example of that.
The mills can be identified from left to right; De Buis, De Steur and Het Leidsche Wapen that stood between the Haarlemmerpoort and the Zaagmolenpoort (city gate near the current Lijnbaansgracht and Singelgracht).
The Buis was located on the Achterweg (near the current Eerste Hugo de Grootstraat) and was demolished around 1890. De Steur was on the (no longer existing) Steurweg and the Singelgracht and was demolished in 1891. The Leidsche Wapen stood on the Beltweg (nowadays Jacob Catskade) and was demolished in 1878-79.
It must have been a beautiful scenery because around 1864 Jacob Olie photographed the Steurweg and around 1898 Piet Mondrian made a chalk drawing of the Achterweg (private collection). By that time, the mills were already gone. However, Wijsmuller has seen them together what dates this drawing to around 1878. This date is confirmed by Wijsmuller’s etching of windmills De Buis, De Steur, De Vrede, Het Leidsche Wapen and Het Blok, which is dated by the Amsterdam City Archives to 1877-1881. Wijsmuller studied at the Amsterdam State Academy until 1877, under Nicolaas van der Waay. Wijsmuller may have made this drawing in his Academy days, which makes it a very early work. Also compared to the composition of Wijsmuller’s Wetering at the Baarsjes near Amsterdam (oil on canvas, ca. 1880-1900, Rijksmuseum)
Whatever the case, it is a beautiful early work by this Amsterdam based little great master.
Thanks to R. Couwenhoven and mill experts M. Schaap & F. Rol
**On the verso in pencil ‘146’ and: ‘Veiling (Fred Muller) J. Wijsmuller/15-17 Dec. ’25 Coll. [Gerard van?] V. Tienhoven.’ =: Atelier J. H. Wijsmuller: paintings, watercolours, drawings, Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, 15 December 1925 cat. no. 146: ‘Sawmills outside Amsterdam. Colored chalk. High 40cm, wide 60 cm.’ The slightly different size could be a mistake.
Biography
Jan Hillebrand Wijsmuller (Amsterdam, 13 February 1855 – Amsterdam, 23 May 1925) was a Dutch painter. Wijsmuller was a son of watchmaker Abraham Jurriaan Machiel Wijsmuller and Maria Gesina Tierie. He took drawing classes with Felix Meritis, under Louis Koopman. Through Felix Meritis he met Nicolaas van der Waay, with whom he later, under August Allebé, studied at the Rijksacademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam and shared a studio together for some time. He continued his studies at the Academy in The Hague and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels. In 1883 he won the Willink van Collen Prize, a prize for young painters. The prize was won in the previous years by his friends Van der Waaij and Ernst Witkamp. Wijsmuller was a member of the Pulchri Studio in The Hague and Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam. Together with Van der Waay, Witkamp, Carel Dake and a number of others he formed the group M.A.B. (named after Michelangelo Buonarroti). Wijsmuller is considered to be a part of the movement of the late Hague School, he mainly painted landscapes and cityscapes and also watercolored and etched. Wijsmuller died at the age of 70 and was buried at Zorgvlied. Source: Wikipedia.
Title: Cavalry stops carriage
Artist: Charles Rochussen (1814-1894)
Medium: Watercolor on vellum paper, signed lower right, dated 1867
Size: 54cm x 74cm excl. frame, 66cm x 86cm incl. frame
Provenance: French private collection
Condition: very good
SOLD
Rochussen is one of the first Dutch artists that made watercolors in the way we know them today. A watercolor is often to be considered to be a more delicate, nuanced and fluent form of painting and a defining characteristic is that it is a translucent medium. The older type watercolors where much more painted over and were often colored drawings, this is not the case with Rochussen at all.
This watercolor is a good example of how Charles Rochussen was the first artist to place more focus on the daily life of soldiers, from 1865 onward. Before this period (early 19th century), the military genre could still be characterized as classical and heroic. That image slowly changed due to a long period of peace, the introduction of conscription and the establishment of garrisons in many large cities where soldiers were increasingly part of the normal street scene.
Biography;
Charles Rochussen (Kralingen, 1814 – Rotterdam, 1894). He was one of the most recognized painters and illustrators of his time and was a leading personality, admired by Van Gogh and Breitner (Breitner was also a student). Rochussen taught at the academy in The Hague. After working a long period in Amsterdam (1849-1869) he returned to Rotterdam. Rochussen often painted Dutch historical scenes. These historical paintings were highly appreciated in the first half of the 19th century. Art had to resemble the art of the Golden Age and tell a story, preferably about events from the 80 Years War/ Dutch Revolt. For a long time, people really saw history as Rochussen depicted it. Later, however, many thought it had become too modern. He started painting more fluently, more like the emerging impressionism. Rochussen really lived at the breaking point of two eras.
Titel: Bronze Bust Josse Gits 1933
Kunstenaar: Pierre de Soete 1886 – 1948
Medium: Bronze with marble base
Maten: Length 16 cm x width 8 cm x height 18 cm
Provenance: From a private collection
Price on request
Biography
De Soete was put to work at the age of eight. At the age of fourteen he was orphaned. He enrolled at the Molenbeek drawing academy. During that period he did all kinds of work for his livelihood. In 1900 he became an apprentice in the polishing department of the ‘Compagnie des Bronzes’. Shortly afterwards he was promoted to the assembly department and worked on statues by famous sculptors such as Julien Dillens, Constantin Meunier and even Jef Lambeaux. As a self-taught artist, he learned to model and sculpt with the intention of becoming a sculptor himself. A bronze foundry in Anderlecht appointed him in 1911 as head of one of its departments.
From 1924 he started full-time as a sculptor. He received numerous orders, including for memorials to the dead, with his first major achievement in 1926 being the Brussels monument for the pilots and balloonists who had died during the war. From then on he focused specifically on official orders for busts, medals or portraits. He created a number of monumental works that are reminiscent of images of authoritarian regimes from the 1930s.
At the same time he created a very varied oeuvre in a smaller format with very original subjects such as motherhood, sports and dance. These works show a very classical style, yet De Soete claimed not to belong to any artistic school and to always work according to his own insight. He also designed effigies for the automotive industry, such as the iconic radiator ornament for the Minerva cars.
He is also the author of the book “Furore teutonico: les incidents de Louvain: ses origines et ses polémiques” about the destruction of Leuven in August 1914, in which the University Hall with library wing went up in flames. He contributed to the letter balustrade of the University Library on Ladeuzeplein. The reconstruction was carried out with American money, but the rector refused to install the balustrade for fear of offending the German scientists. Together with the client, De Soete waged a legal battle in protest against this until 1932.
