Maris Matthijs Wasdag 1917 Dordrechtsmuseum

Matthijs Maris The Bride, or Novice taking the Veil, c 1887

Matthias Maris (17 August 1839 – 22 August 1917) was a Dutch painter, etcher and lithographer. He was also known as Matthijs Maris or Thijs. He initially belonged to the

Hague School The Hague School is a group of artists who lived and worked in The Hague between 1860 and 1890. Their work was heavily influenced by the realist painters of the French Barbizon school. The painters of the Hague school generally made use of relati ...

, like his two brothers,

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...

and

Willem Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, Gui ...

, but his later works deviated more and more from that school into a unique style influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. He was born in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. At the age of twelve, he registered at the Hague Academy of Art, but did not pass the entrance exam. Therefore, he took lessons from Isaac Cornelis Elink Sterk, secretary of the academy. One year later he was admitted and studied there until 1855. In 1854 he became a pupil of the marine painter

Louis Meijer Johan Hendrik Louis Meijer (9 March 1809 – 31 March 1866) was a Dutch painter, etcher, lithographer, and draftsman.p. 282
that enabled him to follow his brother Jacob to Antwerp, where they rented rooms together. In 1858 Matthijs returned to The Hague, where Jacob already had a studio they could share. A later commission enabled them to travel in and start painting in Oosterbeek with painters as

Gerard Bilders Albertus Gerardus "Gerard" Bilders (9 December 1838 – 8 March 1865) was a Dutch landscape-painter, associated with some members of the Hague School, as Anton Mauve and Willem Maris. Biography Bilders was born in Utrecht, where he lived until ...

and

Anton Mauve Anthonij "Anton" Rudolf Mauve (18 September 18385 February 1888) was a Dutch realist painter who was a leading member of the Hague School. He signed his paintings 'A. Mauve' or with a monogrammed 'A.M.'. A master colorist, he was a very signific ...

. In 1860 he traveled with his brother Jacob along the Rhine to Switzerland and back through France to the Netherlands. In Cologne the brothers saw an exhibition that presented an overview of German art since 1800, which intensified the influence of German Romanticism on Matthijs. Upon his return to the Netherlands Matthijs showed some of his works in Amsterdam and The Hague, but they were not well received. This led him to become bitter and withdrawn. Jacob was having success in Paris, and invited Matthijs to join him there, which he did in 1869. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 Jacob returned to The Hague with his family and the loneliness after the departure of Jacob was difficult for Matthijs. There was bitter poverty for him, as for so many artists at that time in Paris, so he went back to work. His style changed very little and was more reminiscent of the earlier period. Later he would distance himself from these works, dismissing them as 'potboilers', only painted in order to put food on the table. An art dealer Daniel Cottier convinced him to settle in London, which he did in 1877. There he painted more imaginative scenes: fairytale characters and enchanted castles. He also painted a number of brides in fine gray tones, delicate and hazy like a dream. He made portraits, especially of the children of friends such as Baby lessor (private collection, 1880) and Barije Swan (Gemeentemuseum, 1887), the fragile child in her white and gray painted lace dress with fine color accents of yellow lemon and the blue ribbons. Children, whether or not combined with animals, were always a favorite subject. He painted portraits and figure in gray-brown tones in many layers, using dry loose paint. The image is as it were veiled in mist. Maris died in London on 22 August 1917, when he was seventy-eight, following a short illness, and was buried there.

References

Sources

*Braakhuis, H.E.M., and J. van der Vliet, Patterns in the life and work of Matthijs Maris. ''Simiolus'' 10 (1978-1979): 142–181. *Sillevis, John and Tabak, Anne, ''The Hague School Book'', Waanders Uitgegevers, Zwolle, 2004 (pp 301–309) *Mw. M. van Delft
"Marris, Matthias (1839-1917)"
''Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland'' (1985), online version of 12 November 2013 .

External links

many free images of paintings and drawings of Matthijs Maris
in the RijksStudio of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
biographical notes and dates of Matthijs Maris
in the Dutch R.K.D. Archive, The Hague
''The Brothers Maris (James – Matthew – William)'', ed. Charles Holme; text: D.C. Thomson
publishers, Offices of 'The Studio', London - Paris, 1907 {{DEFAULTSORT:Maris, Matthijs 1839 births 1917 deaths 19th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters Dutch etchers Dutch lithographers Hague School Artists from The Hague 20th-century Dutch painters 19th-century Dutch male artists 20th-century Dutch male artists 20th-century lithographers