Johannes Tavenraat artwork • painting • previously for sale Horse-sledge on the ice

Johannes Tavenraat, eccentric painter and romantic pur sang, was predestined for trade, but at the age of 30 he opted for a career as a painter. Between 1846 and 1860 he worked in Kleve, where he most likely visited the painting school of B.C. Koekkoek. An art critic wrote in 1844 in the 'Kunstkronijk': 'When Mr. T. wanted to settle out of his atmosphere of pompous poetry and propose simple truth, we would have won a talented landscape painter'. In contrast to the extremely detailed painting method of B.C. Koekkoek, Tavenraat painted much smoother and looser in tone.