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Jo Kosterartist • painter • watercolourist • draughtsmanKampen 1868-1944 Heelsum

biography of Johanna Petronella Catharina Antoinetta 'Jo' Koster

Jo Koster shows early artistic talent. During her high school years in Dordrecht, she received drawing lessons from Roeland Larij, an important figure in the Dordrecht painting world at the time. After her final exams, she moves to Amsterdam to study at the National Normal School for Drawing Education. At that time, a lot was changing in the capital. The city center was renovated and iconic buildings such as the Concertgebouw and the Rijksmuseum were built. But women's emancipation also started, which emphasized the self-development of women. This strengthens Jo's feeling of being free and independent and she decides to continue studying at the Rotterdam Academy after obtaining her drawing certificate.

In 1891 she took part in a group exhibition of female painters in Amsterdam for the first time, which was received rather scornfully by the press. At that time, people were not yet used to ladies who had made painting their profession. In 1894, Koster was awarded the Royal Subsidy for Painting and decided to leave for Paris. She did not like the atmosphere and teaching methods at the private academies there and after a short time she traveled to Brussels, where she continued her studies in Blanc Garin's studio. There she met artists from the international modern movements Les XX and La Libre Esthétique and became captivated by neo-impressionism, the stripes and dots technique that would characterize her style in the first two decades of the 20th century.

Back in the Netherlands in 1897, Koster lived in The Hague for two years and reflected on her future. She has now made a name for herself as a portrait painter, but is unsure whether she should continue with this. In 1899 she left for Laren where she found shelter with her friend Adya Dutilh – the later wife of Otto van Rees. In addition to the landscape, she paints the farmers and workers of the Gooi. There she meets the neo-impressionist Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig who, like her, uses a new language of form and colour to capture the light in his paintings.

In 1902 Koster settled in Zwolle, close to her friend Lidy van Spengler. She would continue to live in the city until 1924, from 1910 in a house with studio that she had built. In addition to recording Zwolle city life, trade and industry and the women in traditional costumes from Staphors, she also sets up a drawing and painting class. She also further develops her skills in needlework and writes and illustrates for newspapers and magazines. She does not want to conform too much to the taste of the public and receives little income from the few portraits she occasionally makes. Because she feels insecure about her abilities, she seeks advice from the art pedagogue H.P. Bremmer. He advises her to give up painting for a while and focus solely on drawing. Bremer advises Hélène Kröller-Müller to purchase work from her and provides her with a few students, including Sárika Góth.

The first two decades of the 20th century are the highlight of Koster's oeuvre. Although she also continued to work naturalistically, between 1900 and 1920 she mainly painted in a luminist style, which she considered the best way to represent light in her work. In addition to Hart Nibbrig, she is also influenced by painters such as Jan Toorop and Jan Sluijters. From 1923, Koster worked for longer periods in Italy in San Gimignano and Positano. In France in the port city of Concarneau on the Breton coast. There she paints harbors and ships in impressionist style with rough and angular shapes that tend towards cubism, sometimes even abstraction. In the early 1930s she visited Mallorca several times for a few months, together with her painter friend Truus van Hettinga Tromp. From 1934, Koster went to live with Truus in The Hague. During the occupation in 1942, the Germans forced them to leave their neighborhood in The Hague and found shelter with Truus' sister in Zaltbommel. In 1943, Koster died in the house of her friend Lidy in Heelsum, after it had been diagnosed a few months earlier that she was terminally ill. She is remembered as an erudite and warm personality who broke with traditions at the end of the 19th century and always followed her own path.


for salepaintings, watercolours and drawings by Jo Koster


Jo Koster | Girls on a Sunday stroll, Hasselt, oil on canvas, 49.3 x 72.1 cm, signed l.r. and ca 1901

Jo Koster

painting • for sale

Girls on a Sunday stroll, Hasselt


previously for salepaintings, watercolours and drawings by Jo Koster


Jo Koster | Rhododendron branches in a vase, oil on canvas, 60.5 x 70.2 cm, signed l.r. and dated 1919

Jo Koster

painting • previously for sale

Rhododendron branches in a vase

Jo Koster | A summer landscape near Hattem, oil on board, 17.7 x 34.6 cm, signed l.l. and dated 1915

Jo Koster

painting • previously for sale

A summer landscape near Hattem

Jo Koster | Cornfield, oil on canvas, 42.5 x 62.6 cm, signed l.r. and dated 1914

Jo Koster

painting • previously for sale

Cornfield

Jo Koster | A blossoming orchard, oil on canvas, 26.4 x 36.2 cm, signed l.l. and dated 1918

Jo Koster

painting • previously for sale

A blossoming orchard

Jo Koster | A country lane in spring, oil on canvas, 38.2 x 27.3 cm, signed l.r. and dated 1918

Jo Koster

painting • previously for sale

A country lane in spring

Jo Koster | A Breton harbour scene, oil on canvas laid down on painter's board, 35.5 x 55.3 cm, signed u.l. and dated 1927

Jo Koster

painting • previously for sale

A Breton harbour scene

Jo Koster | A still life with roses, oil on canvas, 27.3 x 38.5 cm, signed l.l. and dated 1917

Jo Koster

painting • previously for sale

A still life with roses

Jo Koster | Summer, watercolour, pen and ink on paper, 9.0 x 30.8 cm, signed l.r.

Jo Koster

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Summer


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