Taco Mesdagartist • painter • watercolourist • draughtsmanGroningen 1829-1902 Den Haag

Taco Mesdag, who like his younger brother H.W. Mesdag only started painting after a career in banking, worked a lot in Drenthe. Together with his sister-in-law Sientje Mesdag-van Houten, he was one of the first artists to take an interest in this barren and rather inhospitable area. The reason for this was probably that Taco and his wife Gesina van Calcar had a country house in the North Drenthe Vries where they often stayed. As a result, the Mesdag family formed the link with many Drenthe visitors from The Hague from the 1870s, including the painters Mauve and Gabriel.