Hague romanticism art movement • artists • artworks for sale

The 'Haagsche Teeken-academie' was the oldest academy in our country, founded in 1682 after a number of painters from The Hague had left the Guild of Saint Luke a few years earlier. These confident painters felt that the artisanal background of many of the guild members did not do justice to their artistic status as artists. In the occasionally turbulent political times that followed, the academy was closed twice for longer periods, but after 1814. Under Willem I, the drawing academy reopened to young artists with talent. Especially after the merger with the School of Civil Engineering in 1821, better times dawned. The practical lessons consisted mainly of copying examples, such as prints and plaster casts of classical statues and building fragments. The advanced students drew after a nude model to master posture and anatomy. Clearly, the academy was well regarded in the early 1800s. Almost all talented young Hague painters from the period 1830-1840 such as Salomon Verveer, Charles Rochussen and Wijnand Nuijen were taught there for a short or longer period of time.

The romantic painter Bart van Hove led the so-called grand plaster class at the academy (only in the evenings) and the landscape painter Andreas Schelfhout also gave drawing lessons there. Both had students in their own studio who wanted to learn painting. A third studio with many students in The Hague was that of Hendrik Van de Sande Bakhuijzen. The students of these three studios, with some exceptions, determined to a large extent the face of the Dutch Romantic landscape and laid the foundation for the Hague School. All three were excellent teachers.

Bart van Hove, also known as the nestor of the Dutch Romantic school, and his cousin Andreas Schelfhout led the way in the artistic developments of his time. He painted imaginary cityscapes, but also depictions of recognizable buildings. Van Hove had been apprenticed in the studio of the Hague painter-decorator Joannes Breckenheijmer, where large-format painting of cityscapes and landscapes was daily work for the students. In 1928 Van Hove succeeded his teacher as painter-decorator of the Royal Theater in The Hague. He also had increasing success as a painter of cityscapes.
His most important students were: Philip Sadée, Johannes Bosboom, Salomon Verveer, Huib van Hove, Everardus Koster, J.H. Weissenbruch, Johannes Destrée, Charles Leickert, P.G. Vertin, J.A.B. Stroebel and Cornelis Westerbeek.

Andreas Schelfhout was one of the most famous Dutch painters in his day, mainly of idealized summer and winter scenes, beach scenes and some marines. He was most celebrated for his ice sights. His work was so popular that, with B.C. Koekkoek, he was one of the highest paid artists of his time. It is known that Van Schelfhout advised his students to go outside and make sketches directly from nature. These figure studies, composition drawings and landscape sketches could in turn be used as a kind of "archive" of motifs for their paintings.

Van de Sande Bakhuijzen, good friend of Schelfhout, was famous for his idealized Dutch landscapes with cattle. Willem Roelofs only took lessons with him for one year, which were very important for his further development. Van de Sande had him make sketches after work by 17th-century landscape painters such as Berchem and Cuyp and advised him to sketch outdoors, on the spot in nature.

Both at the drawing academy and in the studios, the students got to know each other and close groups of friends were formed. It must have been a good time. For example, around 1835 Nuijen, Waldorp and Verveer not only shared a studio in The Hague, but also regularly met each other and other members of the Hague painters' group in the French Coffee House on the Plein. They also worked together. For example, around 1851 Verveer dusted seascapes by Louis Meijer and Petrus Schiedges, cityscapes by Vertin and landscapes by Hoppenbrouwers. Rochussen occasionally provided the work of his friends Vertin and Hoppenbrouwers with upholstery and for the latter Schelfhout and David Bles also painted the figures from time to time. They also traveled together to find inspiration.