Jkvr. Jacoba Berendina van Heemskerck van Beest (1876-1923) was a Dutch painter,

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

designer and graphic artist who worked in several modern genres. She specialized in landscapes and

still-life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...

Biography

Her father, Jacob Eduard van Heemskerck van Beest, was an officer in the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world an ...

who also painted seascapes and landscapes. Her first art lessons came from him. She later took private lessons from two local artists before attending classes at the

Royal Academy of Art The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

from 1897 to 1901, where she studied with

Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig (5 April 1866 – 12 October 1915) was a Dutch painter and Theosophist. He was one of the first artists who introduced luminism to the Netherlands. Hart was his mother's maiden name. He adopted it in 1884 when all of her ...

. Her first contact with

Modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...

came in Paris, where she took lessons from

Eugène Carrière Eugène Anatole Carrière (16 January 1849 – 27 March 1906) was a French Symbolist artist of the fin-de-siècle period. Carrière's paintings are best known for their near-monochrome brown palette and their ethereal, dreamlike quality. He ...

.Brief biography
@ Kubisme. She remained in France until 1904, then went to live with her sister, Lucie, and was introduced to the art collector, Marie Tak van Poortvliet, who became her lifelong friend and later built a studio for her in the garden of her home. After 1906, she spent her Summers in

Domburg Domburg is a seaside resort on the North Sea, on the northwest coast of Walcheren in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Veere, and lies about 11 km northwest of the city of Middelburg, the provincial capital. ...

, where she came into contact with avant-garde painters such as

Piet Mondriaan Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being o ...

and

Jan Toorop Johannes Theodorus 'Jan' TooropJan Toorop

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

. Shortly after, she became involved in

Anthroposophy Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...

, possibly through the influence of her former teacher, Nibbrig, who was a

Theosophist Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

. She then became an avid follower of ''

Der Sturm ''Der Sturm'' () was a German List of avant-garde magazines, avant-garde art and literary magazine founded by Herwarth Walden, covering Expressionism, Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, among other artistic movements. It was published between 1910 an ...

'', an avant-garde art magazine founded by

Herwarth Walden Herwarth Walden (actual name Georg Lewin; 16 September 1879, in Berlin – 31 October 1941, in Saratov, Russia) was a German expressionist artist and art expert in many disciplines. He is broadly acknowledged as one of the most important discove ...

, and turned increasingly to

Abstraction Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or "concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstr ...

. In 1913, she attended the ''

Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon (First German Autumn Salon) was the title of an art exhibition that was organized in 1913 by Herwarth Walden in Berlin. Henri Rousseau memorial exhibition The exhibition opened on 20 September 1913 in rented rooms ...

'' in Berlin, where she met Walden and started what would be a lifelong correspondence. Thanks to his efforts, her work was popular in Germany, while it remained somewhat ignored in her home country. After 1916, she developed an interest in stained glass windows, designing them for the naval barracks and the Municipal Health Department building in Amsterdam, as well as private residences. From 1922, she lived in Domburg with her old friend and patron, Tak van Poortvliet. She died suddenly, from an attack of

angina Angina, also known as angina pectoris, is chest pain or pressure, usually caused by ischemia, insufficient blood flow to the Cardiac muscle, heart muscle (myocardium). It is most commonly a symptom of coronary artery disease. Angina is typical ...

. Both Tak van Poortvliet and Walden mounted exhibitions of her work, in Amsterdam and Berlin respectively. In 2005, a major retrospective was held at the

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

Selected works

File:Heemskerck-Composite.jpg, 18 Composite Opus 1 File:Bild no. 15 (Segelboote) by Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest.jpg, Sailboats File:Jacoba van Heemskerck Landschaft Bild I um 1914.jpg, Landscape Image I File:WLANL - andrevanb - Landschap, Jacoba van Heemskerck, ca. 1913.jpg, Landscape File:Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Boat and Trees, 1914, NGA 153655.jpg, Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Boat and Trees, 1914, woodcut in black, hand colored with watercolor, on Japan paper, Image:9.6 x 15.1 cm (3 3/4 x 5 15/16 in.) sheet: 18.4 x 24 cm (7 1/4 x 9 7/16 in.), Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012.92.270,

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

File:Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Composition, 1914-1915, NGA 153658.jpg, Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Composition, 1914–1915, NGA 153658

File:Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Composition, 1921, NGA 153660.jpg, Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Composition, 1921, NGA 153660

File:Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Fjord, 1916, NGA 117814.jpg, Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Fjord, 1916, NGA 117814

File:Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Still Life, 1916, NGA 153659.jpg, Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Still Life, 1916, NGA 153659

File:Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Stylized Sailboats, 1915, NGA 153663.jpg, Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Stylized Sailboats, 1915, NGA 153663

File:Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Tree, c. 1915, NGA 153657.jpg, Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, Tree, c. 1915, NGA 153657

Notes

References

External links

Jacoba van Heemskerck van Beest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DCArtNet: More works by Van Heemskerck.

Jacoba van Heemskerck, in the RKD Archive, The Hague
only in Dutch language
' Jacoba van Heemskerck - A Rediscovery; exhibition-text
of the Gemeentemuseum The Hague, August - Nov. 2005
23 images of her art-works - on Wikiart

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heemskerck, Jacoba Van 1876 births 1923 deaths Dutch women painters Dutch glass artists Women glass artists Jonkvrouws of the Netherlands Artists from The Hague 20th-century Dutch painters 20th-century Dutch women artists Deaths from arteriosclerosis

Biography

Selected works

Notes

References

Further reading

External links