Jan Gerard Smits artwork • watercolour • drawing • previously for sale A view of Alkmaar by night

The work of the Hague painter Gerard Smits belongs, certainly as far as his early period is concerned, to the romantic school. As a student of Salomon Verveer, he chose to paint city and village views and the beach and dunes near Scheveningen and Katwijk. But his work was not limited to the area where he lived and he regularly crossed the country in search of picturesque cities and landscapes. Views of Zaltbommel, Zwolle, Oudewater, Leeuwarden and cityscapes in Haarlem tell the stories of an active and travel-loving artist. He gave painting lessons to Queen Sophie.