Dirk Verstratenartist • painterRotterdam 1892-1946 Hilversum

Dirk Verstraten was born in Rotterdam in 1892. Here he attends the Academy of Visual Arts and Technical Sciences, where he is taught by Huib Luns, among others. Verstraten is a versatile artist; He paints, is a designer and is especially known as a carpet designer. In 1926, for example, he designed the Art Deco tapestry for the Tuschinski theatre in Amsterdam. It became the main source of income for Verstraten. Through his work as a designer at the Royal Kinheim, the Vereenigde Koninklijke Tapijtfabrieken in Rotterdam and Smyrna Tapijtfabriek in Belgium, he came into contact with progressive designers of applied art Theo Nieuwenhuis, C.A. Lion Cachet and Jaap Gidding; with the Amsterdam School architect Michel de Klerk he works for the furniture factory 't Woonhuys. His painted oeuvre has remained small. Initially, he painted in a symbolist style, with powerful colours, but in his later, expressionist work we see influences of the Amsterdam School. During the war years, he refused to become a member of the Kultuurkamer (Chamber of Culture) and earned a living by painting portraits of carpet manufacturers and their wives.