Johan Birnie artwork • painting • previously for sale A view on the Eem with Amersfoort in the background

Johan Birnie was born in East Java and grew up on his father's family's tobacco and rubber plantation. After secondary school in Groningen, he was initially a naval officer (until 1890), but decided to study art at the Minerva Academy in Groningen. Birnie became known for his finely pointillist, dreamy landscapes in pastel shades that betray a tendency towards poetic stylization through a thin, flat application of paint. After his marriage in 1893 to Albertine Kranenburg, whose family owned the cigar factory 'Groninger Vlag', he stayed in Java for several years. After returning to the Netherlands, he lived and worked alternately in Groningen, Amersfoort and Arnhem. During the Second World War, the couple had to leave the Netherlands and settled in Brussels. After the war, Birnie moved to Los Angeles, California, where he died at the age of 91.