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Lot Essay
Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch was particularly fascinated with the permanently changing skies above the typically green polders around The Hague and later in the surroundings of Gouda and Boskoop. The present lot shows his fascination for rendering light effects and the tonal qualities. Once Weissenbruch told the artdealer Van Harpen (1858-?): 'De lucht is de hoofdzaak in een schilderij. Als je lucht niet goed is, dan deugt je schilderij niet. De lucht beheerscht het heele landschap!.' (see: Hans Janssen, Wim van Sinderen, De Haagse School, Rotterdam, 1997, p. 46). Against the blue sky, seen from a lower viewing point, the majestic windmills are depicted to give the work a more dramatic atmosphere. The present lot is a typical example of Weissenbruch's great interpretation of the Dutch landscape.
Stimulated by the artistic milieu in The Hague where Weissenbruch grew up, his only aspiration as a child was to become a painter. At the age of sixteen Weissenbruch began his professional career and started taking drawing lessons with the Norwegian artist Johannes Löw. Later on he attended evening classes at The Hague Academy with Bartholomeus Johannes van Hove (1790-1880). Inspired by the famous romantic landscape painter Andreas Schelfhout (1787-1870), Weissenbruch decided to make landscape the prime subject of his works. Although Schelfhout's influence is clearly seen in Weissenbruch's early panoramic landscapes, he soon lost the romantic characteristics and started looking for his own impressionstic and spontanious style. In 1900, when he was an aged man, Weissenbruch travelled to Fontainebleau and Barbizon, which by then had become a pilgrimage resort. Thanks to the support of the influential Amsterdam art dealer Frans Buffa, who staged an exhibition with works exclusively by Weissenbruch in 1899, his fame began to spread abroad, especially to America and Canada.
Stimulated by the artistic milieu in The Hague where Weissenbruch grew up, his only aspiration as a child was to become a painter. At the age of sixteen Weissenbruch began his professional career and started taking drawing lessons with the Norwegian artist Johannes Löw. Later on he attended evening classes at The Hague Academy with Bartholomeus Johannes van Hove (1790-1880). Inspired by the famous romantic landscape painter Andreas Schelfhout (1787-1870), Weissenbruch decided to make landscape the prime subject of his works. Although Schelfhout's influence is clearly seen in Weissenbruch's early panoramic landscapes, he soon lost the romantic characteristics and started looking for his own impressionstic and spontanious style. In 1900, when he was an aged man, Weissenbruch travelled to Fontainebleau and Barbizon, which by then had become a pilgrimage resort. Thanks to the support of the influential Amsterdam art dealer Frans Buffa, who staged an exhibition with works exclusively by Weissenbruch in 1899, his fame began to spread abroad, especially to America and Canada.