Albert Klein Sprokkelhorstartist • painter • watercolourist • draughtsmanAmsterdam 1887-1968

We know little about Albert Klein Sprokkelhorst. The RKD lists him as Albert Sprokkelhorst, known in his younger years as a photographer (source: City Archives Amsterdam) and later as a singer and cabaret performer in Amsterdam, the city where he was born and would continue to live until his death. Later, he took up drawing and painting. He excelled particularly in his symbolist pastel drawings of birds, in which flamingos, cranes, and herons in blue, green, and purple hues with clean lines were his favorite subjects. He could have created these in Artis Zoo. During his time as a cabaret performer, he made pastels of nightlife in the Charleston era, featuring outlined, stylized figures on the dance floor. Occasionally, he created still lifes, also preferably in pastel. Klein Sprokkelhorst signed his work with Sprokkelhorst. The name Klein is possibly an addition derived from the historical location Klein Sprokkelhorst in Lochem, Gelderland, a small settlement of day laborers, whose inhabitants were all named Klein Sprokkelhorst until 1800. He may also have used the pseudonym Jac. Huller.