J.C.B. (JAN) SLUIJTERS 1881 's-Hertogenbosch - 1957 Amsterdam Little house in Amsterdam
Oil / Canvas: 49 x 40 cm
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Details
During the years when Jan Sluijters lived in the Kostverlorenstraat in Amsterdam West (1907-1909), he made it his habit to draw and paint the slowly disappearing windmill landscape in his immediate surroundings. The saw mill ''t Luipaard' from 1907 (see elsewhere in the catalogue 'Art as a Passion, Art Gallery Albricht, 1998) is the immediate result. Another closely related subject is the 'Cottage on the Achterweg', situated among industrial mills. Although we cannot be certain, there is a possibility that this is the miller's cottage belonging to ''t Luipaard', located on the Achterweg between the above-mentioned mill and the saw mill 'De Kop'. Location and shape of the lamppost, the wooden camp sheeting along the embankment of the ditch, the ditch itself - indicated by purple brush strokes - the shape of the facade; all matters that correspond to photographs taken of the surroundings of this house around the turn of the century. On the other side of the cottage was the Middenweg.
As there were similar cottages in this neighbourhood, further investigation will have to show which one was this particular miller's cottage. But Sluijters' clear suggestion of a bricked facade is remarkable, while most of the facades of miller's cottages were made of wood - hardly surprising considering that most of the millers were sawyers.
The style shows a strong influence of Van Gogh (1853-1890), including some divisionist strokes and colour contrasts: blue/red, light blue/violet/green. Both classic and innovative is the place and choice of a lamppost as a setoff. Mrs Loosjes-Terpstra commented on this painting: "A small cityscape ( ill. 85) with a theme from the neighbourhood of Sluijters' home at the time (Kostverlorenstraat, Amsterdam) (...) is painted smoothly and lightly with colourful stripes on an almost white background; the lighted streetlamp in the foreground providing a bright accent. Again, the colour shows the predominant purple range the painter preferred at the time".
Width: 40 cm
Collection P. Albricht, Velp, 1989
Kunstgalerij Albricht, Oosterbeek, 1998
Private collection, The Netherlands, 2002
N. Bakker en J. Juffermans, Jan Sluijters, 1981, Utrecht, p. 103, 106 (ill.)
J.J.M. de Meere, Kunst als passie: Jubileum tentoonstelling Kunstgalerij Albricht, 1998, Slot Zeist Zeist, p. 88-89 (ill.)
Over J.C.B. (JAN) SLUIJTERS
Jan Sluijters is among the most important Dutch painters of the first half of the 20th century. In 1904, he won the Prix de Rome. Sluijters became familiar with modern French painting in Paris in 1906/1907 and had a decisive influence on his work. Here he came into contact with new movements in art such as Fauvism (Matisse, De Vlaminck, Roualt, Van Dongen) and Luminism (Seurat, Signac). In the years 1906 - 1916 he earned recognition as one of the great innovators of Dutch painting. In the period when Sluijters was one of the most important representatives of Dutch luminism, especially in the years 1907-1911, the subject of woods, trees, avenues and country roads regularly recurred in his work; more than 15 times - as far as is known - this theme was treated by him either separately or combined. The forest scenes from 1907 and 1908 remind us of the compositions and use of color of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). The topography, perspective and accurate rendering of trees and foliage dominate the compositions from these years. Due to private circumstances, Sluijters moved to Heeze in Brabant with his girlfriend Greet van Cooten. There he painted a number of exuberant forest scenes, orchards and farms. Color contrasts, divisionist short paint strokes in horizontal and vertical shapes alongside the longer lines of tree trunks characterize the handwriting. Influence, choice of the same subjects and collaboration between Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Leo Gestel (1881-1941) and Sluijters has been addressed by many authors. Again, the nature studies of trees in non-realistic colors, which are meant to express an expression of the observation of nature, reveal not only similarities but also differences between the three artists. In 1908 Mondrian painted his famous and monumental "Forest near Oele" (collection Haags Gemeente-museum), which particularly emphasizes horizontal and vertical lines in yellow and blue-violet color contrasts. This painting, first exhibited in January 1909 at a joint exhibition of Kees Spoor (1867-1928), Sluijters and Mondrian at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, must have made a great impression on Sluijters. The way the trees in the 1910 "Boschlaantje" are given shape and color attests to this influence, but also to Sluijters' greater emphasis on the more colorful range of colors: blue, violet, yellow, red, black and many varieties of green. Perspective played less and less of a part in forest scenes of 1910 and 1911; in the "Boschlaantje" indicated only by the location of the trees and the short brushstrokes of the road. As in the "Forest near Oele," the trees and crests reach into the sky and conclude the painting at the top. Horizon and foliage flow smoothly into each other. The paintings Sluijters made in 1910 are some of the finest works of his luminist period. Such is the case with "Boschlaantje," in which the interplay of short and long lines, broad and narrow areas of color plays out in an almost abstract manner. Yet Sluijters continues to see the forest through the trees; the composition remains recognizable. Sluijters was not concerned with "the search for effect, to show off colors," as he confided to his painter friend Kees Spoor in 1910, but with expressing in paint "a fiercer sense of superiority of spirit, which is moved by the things that stand above the mere optical perceptible." During 1911, coinciding with his departure from Laren, Sluijters broke with luminism and took a different artistic path.
