Johannes "Jos" Lussenburg (

Enkhuizen Enkhuizen () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. History Enkhuizen, like Hoorn and Amsterdam, was one of the harbor-towns of the VOC, from where overseas trade wi ...

, 20 November 1889 –

Nunspeet Nunspeet () is a municipality and town in the central Netherlands. It has been an agricultural site since prehistoric times. The municipality contains a number of villages, namely Hulshorst, Elspeet, and Vierhouten. Nunspeet has a vivid historica ...

, 28 July 1975) was a Dutch painter and musician. Lussenburg was a

self-taught Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individua ...

painter. Originally he was a professional musician: he was a music teacher at several music schools, played the violin, and was conductor of several choirs.

Private life

Lussenburg was born in

, a small fishing village at the west-coast of the former

Zuiderzee The Zuiderzee or Zuider Zee (; old spelling ''Zuyderzee'' or ''Zuyder Zee'') was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km (60 miles) inland and at most 50 km (30 miles) wide, with an o ...

, currently the

IJsselmeer The IJsselmeer (; fy, Iselmar, nds-nl, Iesselmeer), also known as Lake IJssel in English, is a closed off inland bay in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland. It covers an area of with an a ...

. After his marriage in 1917 to Jantje Langendijk, he moved to

Meerssen Meerssen (; li, Meersje ) is a town and a municipality in southeastern Netherlands. History The Treaty of Meerssen was signed in Meerssen in 870. The Treaty of Meerssen was an agreement of the division of the Carolingian Empire by the surviving ...

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

. The couple had three children: a girl, Baukje (born in 1918), and two boys, Hans and Loek, (born in 1920 and 1926, respectively). In 1918, Lussenburg's parents moved to

, a village near the Zuiderzee south-coast and, after a family visit, Jos gave up his job as a teacher in the South to move with his family to

because he loved it as a place to paint. Lussenburg's grandfather was a professional

fisherman A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...

from

and he loved the romance of the rough live as fisher. He made many friends among the many fishermen in the villages and ports around the Zuiderzee. Due to the construction of the

Afsluitdijk The ''Afsluitdijk'' (; fry, Ofslútdyk; nds-nl, Ofsluutdiek; en, "Closure Dyke") is a major dam and causeway in the Netherlands. It was constructed between 1927 and 1932 and runs from Den Oever in North Holland province to the village of ...

, completed in 1932, the Zuiderzee changed into a

fresh-water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

lake: the

. The fishing industry fell into decline in all villages and towns around the new lake.

Career

When Lussenburg hurt his hand in 1923, an infection of a finger on his left hand ended his career as violin player and on advice of his wife he took up painting. But he never lost his love for the music and remained active as director of several choirs in villages near Nunspeet. Many of Lussenburg's paintings show the rough waves of the shallow Zuiderzee with one or more fishing sailing boats in action. Beside his paintings of fishing vessels at sea, he also painted portraits of old fishermen, farmers, beggars, and some self-portraits. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

. In 1963, he published a book called De stervende zee (''The dying sea'') about the end of the fishing industry in the former Zuiderzee. Later, in 1975, a book De stervende Zuiderzee (''The dying Zuiderzee'') dealt with the same problem. In the books, pictures of his paintings together with several stories about the life of the fishers.

Exhibitions

The paintings of Lussenburg have found their way into several museums about the Zuiderzee or IJsselmeer and there are two virtual expositions of his work on the internet.Digital Exposition Jos Lussenburg
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lussenburg, Jos 1889 births 1975 deaths People from Enkhuizen 20th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters Olympic competitors in art competitions 20th-century Dutch male artists