Willem Witsen artwork • painting • previously for sale Winter in Ede

Willem Witsen attended the Rijksacademie, Amsterdam, between 1876 and 1884, and there became friends with the painters E. Karsen, Tholen, Breitner and Israels. After a stay in London, where he became acquainted with Whistler’s work, Witsen began painting dreamy, quiet cityscapes in a dark palette that were to become his specialism. Unlike Breitner and Israels’ bustling city impressions, Witsen saw Amsterdam as a monument of timeless beauty. Willem Witsen lived in Ede between 1893 and 1900. There he found an authentic Veluwe farming village and led a rural life with his wife Betsy van Vlooten. They kept chickens, grew their own vegetables and received many Amsterdam friends. The Zonneberg villa, where they had taken up residence, was within walking distance of the Driehoek, an old part of Ede where a number of old farms stood around one of the village pumps. Witsen painted the Driehoek several times. His landscapes and village views of Ede in the snow, called 'snow paintings' by Witsen himself, received rave reviews at exhibitions in Amsterdam from 1895 onwards.