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When the untouched nature around The Hague was gradually sacrificed to the construction of residential areas, a number of The Hague Scholars sought new nature to gain inspiration for their landscapes. The story of Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch, who “discovered” the villages of North and Nieuwkoop in 1875. Together with Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriel and Stortenbeker he was invited for a sailing trip in this area by the Leiden frame maker and art dealer Sala, who was a passionate nature lover and fisherman. In his thank-you note to Sala, Weissenbruch described the day as “the fairest of my life.” After that he returned annually to Noorden or Nieuwkoop, preferably in early spring and autumn. He mainly found space, water and difficult to access, so untouched nature, that would inspire him to his most beautiful work. The abundant presence of puddles and channels created special atmospheric effects that he successfully reproduced in his paintings and watercolours.
The rough, inaccessible landscape that Weissenbruch was so fond of had been shaped by human hands. From the 16th century, peat was excavated on a large scale in Nieuwkoop far below the waterline for the extraction of peat, which was one of the most important fuels in our country until the 20th century. Then it was replaced by coal and petroleum. The peat was extracted with a dredge bar or pull bar, a kind of landing net with a scraping plate on a long wooden handle. The peat bog was pulled out of the puddle into a boat and then left to dry on long, narrow strips of soil called laying fields. These shelves were surrounded by water (pull holes). Sometimes these can still be seen in paintings. The disadvantage of drying peat on laying fields was that in bad weather the whipped up water chipped away pieces of land so that increasingly large water areas were created. In this way, the existing Haarlemmermeer could have united with Leidschemeer and Spieringmeer in the 16th century, creating an inland sea that even threatened cities such as Haarlem, Leiden and Amsterdam. For example, the Loosdrechtse and Vinkeveense Plassen were created on a smaller scale.
Gabriel also frequently returned to the area around Nieuwkoop and Noorden after the sailing adventure with Sala. He had previously been found in the puddle area near Abcoude and was one of the first painters to visit the water-rich Kortenhoef. “I’m re-studying as a newbie,” he writes enthusiastically from Kortenhoef at the age of 68. He admired the simple, hard-working people who lived mainly on peat dredging, reed cutting and fishing. And paints them in their prame with the laying fields, pulling a fishing card or peat.
From 1880 Gabriel also went with his student Willem Bastiaan Tholen for a few summers to the rugged high moor area near Kampen and Giethoorn. Gabriel was also very interested in the watery reclamation landscape there. And there too, dredging brackets were used on long poles from barges or platforms tied to barrels. The painters then moved into the peat bogs by boat. Gabriel continued to visit this area for at least ten years. Weissenbruch must have been there too. The shelves in Overijssel, called ribs, together with the water provided a beautiful spectacle. These elongated, narrow areas of land can still be seen in the nature reserve known as the Weerribben. Peat peat was also extracted from the 17th century in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. There, the peat was often not completely submerged and it was extracted and drained via ditches and waterways. The names of towns and villages still remind of these bogs.
The peat pools would become a major attraction for water sports enthusiasts in the 20th century. The vibrancy of sailing boats on the water and in the harbors would inspire a younger generation of artists in particular. For example, the impressionist Cornelis Vreedenburgh liked to paint the Loosdrechtse Plassen. Dirk Smorenberg, who lived in Loosdrecht, preferred to find the silence of the puddles. If you look closely, you will occasionally recognize remnants of the old peat landscape in his paintings.
