The Laren School is the name of an art colony located in the Dutch village, Laren, in the Gooi near Hilversum. The artists of this offshoot of the Hague School chose the inhabitants of Laren and the surrounding landscape as the subject of their art.
Discovered by painter Jozef Israëls, the area around Laren School was distinguished by its unspoiled beauty and diversity of landscape, and 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 significant in DutchImpressionism, being seen as part of this international movement. The ideas fostered in the area found their way to the Modernist art movement.
The industrialisation of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and other regions of the Netherlands affected landscapes that had remained untouched for centuries. Many of these landscapes disappeared, and with them, the inspiration for earlier 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 to paint. Around 1870, the painter, Jozef Israëls, discovered the village of Laren. He visited often with his son, Isaac, whom he instructed in outdoor painting. His enthusiasm for Laren, and the surrounding landscape and agricultural activity, was infectious, and other artists from the Pulchri Studio began to join him. Albert Neuhuys and Anton Mauve were the first to follow Israëls in 1877 and in 1882.[1][2] Later, Hein Kever, Willem Steelink, Hendrik Valkenburg, Wally Moes, Etha Fles, Arina Hugenholtz and Tony Offermans Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch, Willem Roelofs, and Max Liebermann (the first foreign painter at the Laren School and an old friend of Israël) came to work in Laren. Thus, the Laren School as an artist colony was born. Some of these painters settled in the region; their Laren-inspired works were shown to the public at the Pulchri Studio and affiliated galleries.
Anton Mauve (1886-87): The Return of the Flock, Laren - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Neuhuys concentrated on farm life as a genre subject, but the others turned to the landscape. Art historians describe this as the Laren Style, which is regarded as part of the Hague School.[3]
Around 1885, the first colony ceased to produce new work based on Laren and its environs.
The second generation of the Laren School
Piet Mondriaan (1917): The Windmill - Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
The second generation of the Laren School diverged, one group following the traditions of the Hague School while the rest painted in the new style of Impressionism, embracing modernity with an enthusiasm now considered typical of the Netherlands.[citation needed]
In 1903, under the initiative of August Johannes le Gras (1864–1915), the Gooische Painters Association, "De Tien" (The Ten), was founded. This group organized exhibitions across the country to create new opportunities for the work of its members. The Ten included nl:Derk Meeles, nl:Toon de Jong, nl:David Schulman and nl:Emanuel van Beever.
The Singer Museum of Laren.
William Henry Singer, an American painter and art collector, came to Laren in 1901. In 1911, he built a villa called De Wilde Zwanen (The Wild Swans) which, after World War II, was converted into the Singer Museum and concert hall.[4]
In 1921, the Association of Visual Artists, Laren, Blaricum, was founded by Co Breman. In 1935, the Gooische Painters Association fractured, and the members formed several distinct groups. August Johannes le Gras specialised in African landscapes and animals, Jan Pieter Veth in portraits, nl:Douwe Komter in still life.
Today, the Singer Museum exhibits works of the Laren School.
From art collectors and authors, the term is often used for all painters active in Laren, and as shorthand for the continuation of the Hague School and the Oosterbeek School. Several founders of this artist colony — Jozef Israëls and his son, Isaac, along with Albert Neuhuys and Anton Mauve — were already known as Hague painters.
This artists of the Laren School are linked together by the relationship between their ideas of art, style and techniques. In Laren, the countryside was the main theme of the landscape painters. Therefore, the term 'Laren' applies primarily as a place of landscape painting. The lightening of color, by adding gold yellow, red and blue, is essential to the Laren School. Another striking feature of Laren School paintings is the romantic view of social life in this tough region of Gooiland.
Shown painters in Singer Museum, Laren
Evert Pieters (about 1890): A Family Meal - private collection.
Laren is a town and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the Gooi region, it is the oldest town in the area. Together with its neighbor Blaricum, Laren is one of the most affluent towns in the Netherlands.
Oosterbeek is a village in the eastern part of Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Renkum in the province of Gelderland, about 5 km (3.1 mi) west of Arnhem.
Anthonij "Anton" Rudolf Mauve was a Dutch realist painter who was a leading member of the Hague School. He signed his paintings 'A. Mauve' or with a monogrammed 'A.M.'. A master colorist, he was a very significant early influence on his cousin-in-law Vincent van Gogh.
The Hague School is a group of artists who lived and worked in The Hague between 1860 and 1890. Their work was heavily influenced by the realist painters of the French Barbizon school. The painters of the Hague school generally made use of relatively somber colors, which is why the Hague School is sometimes called the Gray School.
Willem Maris was a Dutch landscape painter of the Hague School.
Amsterdam Impressionism was an art movement in late 19th-century Holland. It is associated especially with George Hendrik Breitner and is also known as the School of Allebé.
Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch, also known as Hendrik Johannes Weissenbruch was a Dutch painter of the Hague School. He is noted especially for his watercolours.
Pulchri Studio is a Dutch art society, art institution and art studio based in The Hague ('s-Gravenhage), Netherlands.
Johannes Evert Hendrik Akkeringa was part of the second generation of the Hague School painters. Akkeringa is primarily known for his paintings and watercolours of women and playing children at the beach, women mending nets and intimate tea-time conversations.
Singer Laren is a museum and concert hall located in the center of Laren, the Netherlands. The museum is devoted to presenting and preserving the collection of the American artist William Henry Singer Jr. (1868–1943) and his wife Anna (1878–1962).
Johannes Albert Neuhuys was one of the best-known painters of the Laren School and a friend of many of the Hague School painters.
The Tweede Schilderijenzaal, or Painting Gallery II, is one of two art gallery rooms in Teylers Museum. The Tweede Schilderijenzaal was built in 1893 as an extension of the first gallery.
Jacob Simon Hendrik Kever, known as Hein was a Dutch genre and still-life painter; associated with the Laren School.
Maria Philippina (Marie) Bilders-van Bosse was a painter, famous for her landscape paintings in an early Dutch-impressionist style.
Carel Bernardus Dankmeijer, known as Charles (1861-1923) was a Dutch painter; best known for his colorful cityscapes and river scenes.
Jan Hillebrand Wijsmuller was a Dutch painter. He belongs to The 2. Golden Age of Dutch Painting.
Franz Wilhelm Maria Deutmann was a Dutch painter and photographer. He was a member of Arti et Amicitiae and is considered to be part of the Laren School, an offshoot of the Hague School, which is an independent part of the international movement of impressionism.
Willem Steelink Jr. was a Dutch painter and graphic artist, associated with the Laren School.
Cornelis Lieste was a Dutch painter and lithographer. He specialized in Romantic style landscapes.
Hendrik Jan (Henk) Wolter was a Dutch painter, primarily known for his impressionistic and luministic paintings, influenced by the French impressionists and Belgian luminists Emile Claus and Theo van Rysselberghe.
References
Leeuw, Ronald de; Sillervis, John and Dumas, Charles (1983): The Hague School: Dutch Masters of the Nineteenth Century, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, ISBN978-0-297-78219-3.
Wright, Christopher (1980): Paintings in Dutch museum, Philip Wilson Publishers Liumited, London, ISBN978-90-290-1303-1
Heyting, Lien (2004): De wereld in een dorp - schilders, schrijvers en wereldverbeteraars in Laren en Blaricum, Meulenhoff, ISBN978-90-290-4856-9.
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