H. (HERMANUS) KOEKKOEK

Biography

H. (HERMANUS) KOEKKOEK
1815 Middelburg - 1882 Haarlem

Hermanus Koekkoek, distinguished from his like-named son as "the Elder", was a Dutch painter, etcher, and draughtsman, best known for his marine paintings. He belonged to the celebrated Koekkoek dynasty of painters: the youngest son of the marine painter Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek and the brother of the landscape painter Barend Cornelis Koekkoek, among others. He trained under his father, and in his youth, the family moved from Middelburg to the fishing village of Durgerdam on the Zuiderzee, after which Hermanus settled in Amsterdam.

Following his father, Koekkoek specialised in marine subjects, though he also painted river and coastal views and the occasional wooded landscape. His work combines a realistic, finely detailed rendering of vessels and water with a Romantic sensibility for light and atmosphere, seen above all in his depictions of ships contending with the elements in rising storms. He was elected to the Royal Academy in Amsterdam in 1840, and to the Rotterdam Society in 1841, and in 1875, he was awarded a gold medal at Arti et Amicitiae. Much of his output was sold abroad, particularly in England, where his son Hermanus the Younger ran an art dealership in London. Four of his sons, including Willem and Johannes Hermanus Barend, also became painters. His work is held in collections including the Teylers Museum and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.