Adrianus Eversenartist • painter • watercolourist • draughtsmanAmsterdam 1818-1897 Delft

Adrianus Eversen was considered the most gifted student of the famous cityscape painter Cornelis Springer. Eversen took over the compositional structure, detailing and warm colour scheme from his teacher. However, he was more free in his choice of subjects. While Springer mainly painted 'portraits' of existing buildings and city districts, Eversen usually arranged his villages and streets in such a way that a beautiful cityscape was created.
Eversen was born in Amsterdam and studied painting at H.G. ten Cate and from 1840 with Cornelis Springer. Most of his life he chose to paint cityscapes and village scenes. While Springer often painted truthful representations of what he saw, Eversen allowed himself more freedom. A cityscape consisting of both existing and invented elements was more attractive to him than a faithful composition of reality. He also gave his paintings a sunny appearance by using warm colours - even a winter painting with snow almost never looked chilly. Not only the buildings, but also the staffage was important to him. The foreground of his town and village scenes is often bustling; people have a chat, there are market stalls, walkers stroll around and animals are also present. Churches are often present, but often only a part of the tower is visible, so that it is difficult to see which city it is. The emphasis is on depicting residential houses rather than the grand architecture that often plays a leading role in Springer's paintings.
In the mid-19th century, Eversen was a highly regarded cityscape painter. He regularly participated in exhibitions of living masters at home and abroad. He lived most of his life in Amsterdam, where he was a member of the art society Arti et Amicitiae. In addition to the Netherlands, his paintings also sold well abroad, as far as the United States. In England his work was purchased by the well-known collector John Sheepshanks. After the collector's death, his collection, including Eversen's paintings, was donated to the Victoria & Albert Museum. Eversen traveled regularly and visited many cities that he immortalized; apart from Amsterdam also Haarlem, Amersfoort, Harderwijk, Woerden, Hattem and in Belgium Antwerp and Bruges. In 1889 he moved to Rotterdam, where he would live until his death in 1897.