Kees de Kort (2 December 1934,
Nijkerk
Nijkerk (; Dutch Low Saxon: ''Niekark'') is a municipality and a city located in the middle of the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland.
Population centres
Some people state that ''Groot Corlaer'' is a population centre on its own, but ...
- 19 August 2022) was a
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
artist best known for his illustrations of Bible scenes for children's books.
Life
De Kort studied at the Art Academy of Amersfoort, at the Art School of Utrecht and at the
Imperial Academy of Fine Arts
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thr ...
in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
.
[Annette Birschel, "Bibel und Schweine. Besuch bei dem niederländischen Maler Kees de Kort." ("Bible and pigs. Visit to the Dutch painter Kees de Kort.") In: ''Zeitzeichen'', vol. 16 (2015), no. 3, p. 54.]
De Kort first created Bible illustrations for the public television station "schulfunk". In 1965 the Dutch Bible Society commissioned him to illustrate a number of biblical stories for people with learning disabilities. This led in 1967 to the series called ''What the Bible says'' - a series of small
picture books
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...
, each containing one Bible story. The text was written in simple words, always limited to a few short sentences per page. De Kort developed a distinctive pictorial style for his illustrations, with vivid characters and bright colors. It is said that his pictures appeal to both children and adults, without slipping into
kitsch
Kitsch ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly-eccentric, gratuitous, or of banal taste.
The avant-garde opposed kitsch as melodramatic and superficial affiliation with ...
.
"Kees de Kort wird 80 Jahre alt" ("Kees de Kort is 80 years old")
program broadcast on Schweizer Fernsehen (Swiss Radio), 2 December 2014.
The Bible books were published in 65 countries and translated into many languages.Book of Amos
The Book of Amos is the third of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Old Testament (Tanakh) and the second in the Greek Septuagint tradition. Amos, an older contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah, Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alto ...
, the Book of Job
The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars ar ...
and the Song of Songs). He also has created 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 ...
windows and triptych
A triptych ( ; from the Greek language, Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) t ...
s with religious subjects.
De Kort lived in Bergen, North Holland
Bergen () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Its North Sea beaches and forests make it a popular destination for tourists. In 2001, the municipality was formed from a merger of the former municipaliti ...
, was married, and has two sons who are also artists.
Works
What the Bible Tells Us
The following titles comprise the "What the Bible Tells Us" series, published by The Bible Societies in the U.K. and by the Augsburg Publishing House in the U.S.:
Old Testament stories:
* In the Beginning
* Noah
* Abraham
* Jacob and Esau
* Joseph
* Moses
* On the Way to the Promised Land
* Ruth
* David
* Jonah
New Testament stories:
* A Baby Called John
* Jesus is Born
* Jesus Goes to Jerusalem (the twelve-year-old Jesus)
* Jesus at the Wedding
* Jesus and His Disciples (first encounters with the disciples)
* Jesus Heals a Sick Man
* Jesus and the Storm
* Jesus Conquers Death
* Jesus and a Little Girl
* Jesus Heals a Blind Man (Bartimaeus)
* Zacchaeus
* The Good Samaritan
* The Son Who Left Home
* The Workers in the Vineyard
* Jesus at the Passover (Jesus enters Jerusalem, the Last Supper)
* Jesus is Alive (aka: Jesus is Risen; Gethsemane, Pilate, the crucifixion, the empty tomb, first resurrection appearances)
* Jesus Goes Away (the ascension, Pentecost)
* A Man is Baptized (the first gentile convert)
Other books
* Kees de Kort, ''Kijkbijbel'' ("Look-Bible"), Haarlem: Bijbelgenootschap, 1992
* ''Das grosse Bibel-Bilderbuch, Gemalt von Kees de Kort'' ("The Big Bible Picture-Book, Painted by Kees de Kort"), Stuttgart, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1998
* Imgard Weth, ''The Neukirchen Children's Bible'', illustrated by Kees de Kort
* Imgard Weth, ''7 x 7 Bible Stories'' (an abridgement of the Neukirchen Children's Bible)
* Imgard Weth, ''The New Illustrated Children's Bible'', Edinburgh, Saint Andrew Press, 2008 (another translation of ''7 x 7 Bible Stories'')
References
External links
website of Kees de Kort
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kort, Kees de
1934 births
2022 deaths
Dutch artists
Dutch illustrators
People from Nijkerk