(Pieter Floris Nicolaas Jacobus)
Floris Arntzenius
(Soerabaja 1864 – 1925 the-Hague)
Dutch painter
From before posting, featuring etcher Hendrik Christiaan Spruit and
his linoleum-etchings and ginger jar compositions, to painter Floris Arntzenius I think is an understandable and not to big a leap. Both men were afterall contemporaries, lived and worked in
the city of the-Hague and both enjoyed an Indonesian youth and background. I guess they must have known one another. The contrast however between the world of color and black and white couldn't be better illustrated.
At the age of eleven Floris was send to the Netherlands from Java (Netherlands
Dutch Indies) to Amsterdam were he was raised by an uncle and aunt. He visited the Royal Arts Academy (RAvBK) in
Amsterdam 1883-1888 and later the Royal Arts Academy (KAvSK) in Antwerp
In his Amsterdam class were painter-etcher Willem Witsen (1860-1923) and later famous
Dutch (the Amsterdam Impressionist) painters Isaac Israëls (1865-1934), George Breitner (1857-1923) who also did (below left) a ginger jar with anemones as did another class mate painter Floris Verster (1861-1927) famous for his flowers still-lives (below right).
Besides, Breitner and
Witsen were among the earliest Dutch city photographers recording the city views and its inhabitants extensively on glass-plate negatives.
Arntzenius, perhaps because of his
Indonesian background, moved with his widowed mother to the-Hague in 1892
becoming the 3 impressionist painter of but of the-Hague: the Netherlands capitol. His works are
collected in our National Museums and in private collections.
He was one of the most versatile Dutch
painters: famous for his watercolours he also was a master in painting rainy day
street and city life (of the Haque), Dutch landscapes, Victorian beach life, and
in later life grew into a highly regarded and requested portrait painter.
But placed between the text of this posting here are his flower paintings often with iconic and aesthetic ginger jars (and nasturtiums) an almost exclusively Dutch composition and “invention”. As I’ve explained in
my earliest Blogging career (follow the tags gingerjar) and throughout.
His wife Alida Margaretha Maria (Lide)
Doorman (1872-1954) and his eldest (of 4) daughters Elize Claudine (Lies)
(1902-1982) were also able painters and they too embraced flowers and (maybe the family's) ginger jars as their subjects.
Above: daughter Lies, flowers in pot by her and portrait of her by her father.
Above: one of the loveliest: by Lide Arntzenius, the painters wife.
All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.
(Today, there has been an addition to the recent posting on Lina Ammer. For those who might be interested)
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