Hendrik Jan Wolter

Hendrik Jan Wolter (Amsterdam 15 July 1873 – Amersfoort 29 October 1952) 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 Rijsselberghe. Wolter grew up in the inner city of Amsterdam, where his father (civil engineer by profession) operated one of the first Dutch companies installing heating systems in buildings and houses. In 1885 the family (and the company) moved to the provincial town of Amersfoort, where Wolter discovered his talent for the arts. He received his first drawing lessons from his teacher in the German language, W.N. Coenen, who had followed painting classes at the Royal Academy of Arts in Amsterdam. Like so many adolescents from well-to-do families of his day, he became fascinated by sports and became a fairly succesful cyclist, wining various races between 1890 and 1894. After finishing secondary school, at the behest of his father he followed a one year military training at the Harlem Infantery academy. Having succesfully completed the course, he requested his father's consent to start art college, where his heart lay. In 1895 he was accepted as a student at the Royal Academy for Arts in Antwerp. In 1896 he was admitted to the Institut Supérieur of the Academy, where he graduated in 1899. He then returned to the Netherlands and worked at his studio in Leusden, close to Amersfoort. His works in the early years of his career were strongly influenced by the classistic style that was taught at the Antwerp Academy at the time. He painted in realistic colours with brownish overtones which are reminiscent of the Hague School of Dutch painters from the late 19th century. In 1904 Wolter married Koosje van Hoor, daughter of a vicar from the North of Holland and they moved to Laren, which at the time had a lively painter community. In 1906 his son Hendrik was born. Around that time Wolter's palette began to include lighter colours which began to dominate his work after visits to Devon (1910) and Cornwall (1911-1913) in England. Fascinated by the play of light on water, he developed a divisionist, impressionistic style with vibrant colors. His lively paintings of the fishing villages of Polperro and St Ives and the surrounding coast are among his best work from this period. During World War I (the Great War 1914-1918) the Netherlands remained neutral, and it was virtually impossible for Wolter to travel to England. In early 1915 the family moved to Amsterdam, where Wolter had a studio on the third floor of a house overlooking the Amstel river. From there he had a marvellous view of the river, the various bridges and, beyond, the imposing buildings of the Amstel hotel and the Carré theatre. In those war years Wolter painted the view from his studio at different times of day and year, with changing light and weather and these 'Amstel views' are among the best and most expensive works of his career. At the same time he frequented the busy harbour of Amsterdam, where he painted the ships lying at the quays, both the traditional wooden barges used for inland transport and the modern seagoing general cargo ships. During these years Wolter also experimented with a pointillist, luministic style, inspired by the paintings of Emile Claus and Theo van Rijsselberghe that he had become acquainted with during his studies in Antwerp.

Hendrik Jan Wolter
Hendrik Jan Wolter in 1925
Born	(1873-07-15)15 July 1873 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Died	29 October 1952(1952-10-29) (aged 79) Amersfoort, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Occupation	Painter

After the War, Wolter resumed his travels to England, and from 1920 to 1925 he visited London and Cornwall every year. Fascinated by the shipping traffic, the docks and wharves on the Thames, he made many paintings showing the river and the busy maritime trade, often with London Bridge, Tower Bridge or Waterloo Bridge in the distance. In 1925 Wolter was appointed professor at the Royal Academy of Arts in Amsterdam. The steady income this provided enabled him to travel farther afield, in particular to France, where he painted mainly in Brittany (the fishing ports of Douarnenez and Tréboul) and later in the South of France (Espalion, Albi, St Paul de Vence). From 1926 Wolter acted as chairman of the governmental Committee of Foreign Exhibitions, which determined which painters (and paintings) were shown at exhibitions abroad, including the Venice Biennale. His frequent visits there resulted in paintings of the canals, churches and buildings of Venice. After he retired from his professorship and associated roles, Wolter and his wife made a journey to Rome and various other places in Rome. During this trip Wolter discovered the picturesque fishing port of Camogli, south of Genoa, where he produced numerous oil sketches of both the inner and the outer harbour. In 1939, he and koosje returned to Italy, planning to stay for a longer period of time. In that year, Wolter mainly painted in Rome, where the ouple lived until the Second World war broke out on 1 Sepotember 1939, when they returned to the Netherlands.

Having sold the house in Amsterdam where they had lived, Wolter designed a new house at Laren, where they moved in 1940, just before the Netherlands were occupied by Nazi Germany. When they moved to Laren for the first time in 1904, Wolter had designed the house where they then lived, building another house with studio in 1905 where they lived until their moval to Amsterdam in 1905. During his time in Laren, Wolter designed a total of seven or eight houses. Some of these were commissions, but Wolter also built on land he or his wife had acquired, selling the plot when the house (or in some cases the studio) was finished.

In 1946, Wolter and his wife made a last travel abroad, to the United States, where his son was living in Woodstock, NY. During that trip he made several oil sketches, in particular a series of views of Manhattan from Weehawken, NJ.

In the early 1950s, Wolter's health deteriorated quickly and he died in 1952, at the age of 79.

In his lifetime, Wolter's works were shown at many exibitions in the Netherlands and abroad. As a member of the artist associations Club De Tien, St Lucas, Arti et Amicitiae, Pulchri Studio and Hollandsche Kunstenaarskring Wolter participated in many of the annual exhibitions they organised. In addition, from 1908 Wolter had several solo exhibitions in galleries and musea across the Netherlands.

. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics. Wolter's work was included in the 1939 exhibition and sale Onze Kunst van Heden (Our Art of Today) at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

External links

• images of Wolter's art on ArtNet