Love couples in art are timeless. They occur in reality, as an artist couple or as a love couple depicted on a work of art. The couples have one thing in common, they are familiar with a state of ecstasy from overwhelming emotions. We can swoon away at the romantic idea that love produces a passionate and fruitful partnership. But to what extent does an artist couple actually influence each other?
If we look at history, it turns out that the relationships of artist couples over time were closely linked to women’s struggles for equality and emancipation. And that not much came from intimate cooperation. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, few female artists were given access to the academies and had to rely on studios of – male – artists to develop their talent. It often turned out that the established division of roles between men and women and the associated power relationship were deeply rooted. And if they were married to an artist, their artistic development was quickly sacrificed to his talent and family care.
Tjieke Roelofs-Bleckmann was a talented painter, wife of figure and interior painter Albert Roelofs and daughter of the painter Willem Bleckmann. So “a life for (and of) art” was not strange to her. The artist couple had a love relationship according to the 19th-century traditional model. Tjieke was her husband’s muse and his most loyal model and inspired her husband to countless figure pieces that testify to an intimate, domestic happiness. In the paintings, shown here, we can imagine that the atmosphere in the couple’s house was largely determined by Tjieke. The vase of flowers on both works must have been freshly picked through her that morning. The style of both artists has many similarities, is impressionistic and loose. Tjieke was very gifted, but was satisfied with the occasional painting.
Alexandrine Kelder-Gortmans was the wife and the main model of Toon Kelder. Alexandrine spent a very happy childhood in the exotic nature of her native Indonesia. When she went to live in the Netherlands in 1916, it was a big disappointment; in the street she was scolded for her Indian appearance. When she married Toon Kelder she had no artistic aspirations. There was therefore no question of a traditional 19th-century division of roles between an artist couple. But when she visited southern France in 1960 it started to itch. In the subtropical nature of the Mediterranean landscape she imagined herself back in her youth. For joy, she began to draw in a naively realistic way, using beautiful blue-green tones to create an effect of melancholy and alienation. Alexandrine was her husband’s muse, but he had nothing to do with the reason she started painting. With the fact that she hardly painted after his death.
Yet they were always there, the women who made a career in a male-dominated art world. Maria Vos was such a person. Born in Amsterdam, her father let her learn, quite unusual at the time, at the Stads Fransche Boarding School for Young Misses in Weesp. This school had a great drawing tradition. Around 1841, when she was apprenticed in the studio of the painter Petrus Kiers, she met Adriana Haanen, an artist from the Haanen family of painters, with whom she would become intensely friends. After visiting picturesque Oosterbeek, she settles there. In the summer of 1863, a big change came to life. Together with Adriana, she decides to move into a joint home and studio in Oosterbeek. And that’s not all. The successes of the ‘love couple’ with the sale of their natural-looking painted bouquets and still lifes enable them to build Villa Grada together in Oosterbeek in 1870.
Alida Martens-Pott already drew as a small child and after her secondary school and Rijks HBS she obtained her drawing certificate at the Minerva Academy in Groningen. After she also completed the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague, she returned to Groningen, where she was admitted as the first female member to the avant-garde artist group De Ploeg in 1918. The talented Ali quickly goes her own way there and is very active within the art circle. For several years she has held board positions within De Ploeg, is a drawing teacher and designs, among other things, the De Ploeg logo. She gets to know the six-year-younger George Martens whom she marries. They don’t have much in common. George can be found a lot on the water and in the city. He loves the bustle and conviviality of city life, is fascinated by the dynamics of urban traffic, where he finds his way on a Harley Davidson. Ali loves to paint outside, she has a keen eye for detail such as reed plumes, twigs with berries and the winding of a ditch. She also makes many portraits. The soul stirrings of this love couple did not greatly affect their work. The mutual influence is limited to technology; in some of Pott’s works you see the hand of Martens and vice versa. In Pott’s oeuvre we see no vibrant city or fast sports. She made ethereal nude studies, while George’s were flesh and blood, sometimes “portrayed” the model as a folk lellebel. Unfortunately, she did not keep her artistic promise. After her marriage in 1922 she hardly paints anymore. It seems from letters that she has little mourned about that herself. She remains involved in the art world and works as a drawing teacher until she falls ill and dies at the age of forty-three.
The fact that an artist couple works together in their studio in a passionate way, giving their art an extra dimension, remains a romanticized idea well into the 20th century. After initial success and after achieving some independence, many women fell back into the familiar pattern. Often without willing to admit it, many artists were afraid that their partner could develop into a serious competitor. Nowadays we are dealing with a completely new phenomenon of artist couples: the artist duos. Straight, gay, brothers and sisters, business duos form the basis for contemporary artist couples, where love is no longer central, but the common project. Carried out in equivalence, without competing thought.