Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch

Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch , portrait by Jozef Israels

Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch (born November 30, 1824 in The Hague as Hendrik Johannes Weissenbruch ; † March 14, 1903 ibid) was a painter from the Netherlands .

Life

Weissenbruch was interested in painting even as a boy. He took drawing lessons from the Hague artist JJ Löw ; between 1843 and 1850 he attended the art academy. One of his teachers there was Andreas Schelfhout . Above all, he admired Jacob van Ruisdael's cloud games, which he was able to study at the Hague Mauritshuis . Together with his nephew Jan and Willem Roelofs he was the founder of the artist group Pulchri Studio . His paintings are initially quite similar to those of Andreas Schelfhout. Most of all he painted dark, cloudy skies; In Weissenbruch's works it is not uncommon for the horizon to be only a quarter of the height of the entire painting. After about 1870, his style loosened up. Many critics are of the opinion that Weissenbruch only reached its artistic peak in the last 20 years of his life. Weissenbruch is widely regarded as one of the painters of the Hague School . Weissenbruch's work has been very popular in Canada since 1876 . In 1897 there was a large special exhibition of his work in Montréal . In 1900 he visited the French artist village of Barbizon .

It is also worth mentioning that Weissenbruch, who was sometimes also called “sword without mercy” because of his well-known blunt criticism, viewed the work of his protégé Vincent van Gogh at Anton Mauve's request . At that time he was probably the only one who did not judge the work in terms of salability and who encouraged the aspiring artist. “When Mauve said there was a painter in you, Tersteeg said no, and at that time Mauve took sides against Tersteeg for you, I was there; and if it happens again, I will also take sides for you, now I know your work. ” describes van Gogh a conversation with Weissenbruch in Letter 175 of February 13, 1882. It was about van Gogh's pen drawings, which Tersteeg rejected while Weissenbruch demanded: "... then you have to draw it with the pen!" (195). Van Gogh then stopped using watercolors and turned to pen for a long time, which led to the first high point of his work, although the resulting works were described as "not for sale" throughout his life.

Where can you see his work?

Many of his works, which are mainly landscapes , can be admired in museums. The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam , the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag , the Stadtmuseum in Oss and the Groninger Museum in Groningen should be mentioned in this regard .

literature

• Edwin Jacobs: JH Weissenbruch 1824-1903 . published by Waanders in Zwolle, 1999, ISBN 90-400-9422-5 .

Web links

Commons : Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Short biography, with several links to images of his works in museums (nl)
• Works by JH Weissenbruch in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, with pictures (nl)
• A work by JH Weissenbruch in the Groninger Museum (nl)