Marten Ykes "Max" Nauta (2 April 1896 – 18 December 1957) was a Dutch

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, especially noted for his portraits, and

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 ...

artist.

Life

Nauta was born in

Deventer Deventer (; Sallands: ) is a city and municipality in the Salland historical region of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. In 2020, Deventer had a population of 100,913. The city is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, bu ...

, son of a baker, Yke Nauta (1865-1928), and his wife Mintje (née Schotanus). His father was a gifted self-taught painter, as was ''his'' father, Klaas Nauta (1825-1872), who painted some of the

bier A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin, or casket containing a corpse is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave.''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., New York, ...

s still to be seen in the Sint-Gertrudiskerk in

Workum Workum () is a city located in the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân in Friesland, Netherlands. It received city rights in 1399 and is one of the eleven cities of Friesland. It had a population of 4,435 in January 2017.Scheen Nauta received his first drawing lessons from the architect L. Groen in

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland, about 30 km north of Amsterdam. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The ...

, where he attended the craft school. Thanks to a bursary from Queen Wilhelmina he was able to study at the

Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten The Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) was founded in 1870 in Amsterdam. It is a classical academy, a place where philosophers, academics and artists meet to test and exchange ideas and knowledge. The school supports ...

in Amsterdam, where he trained as a painter under professors Carel Dake, Nicolaas van der Waay,

Antoon Derkinderen Antonius Johannes (Antoon) Derkinderen ('s-Hertogenbosch, 20 December 1859 – Amsterdam, 2 November 1925) was a Dutch painter, Glass artist, Draftsman and designer of book covers. Life Early Years Antoon Derkinderen was born in 's-Hertog ...

, Jan Six and Willem van der Pluym.PluymJacobs Travelling for further study, Nauta visited, among other places, Czechoslovakia, where he stayed for two years. He organised, on behalf of the Vereniging Van Gogh, the first exhibition there of Dutch art. He was received in the palace of the president, Tomáš Masaryk. He had contact with the Czech artists Alphonse Mucha, Max Svabinsky and Alois Bileck and the sculptor Jaroslav Horejc. In the mining town of Ústí nad Labem (Aussig a/d Elbe) he met Helene (Lene) Kettner, whom he married in 1926. From 1926, back in Amsterdam, Nauta's work was influenced by George Hendrik Breitner, and later more by the Frenchmen

Charles Daubigny Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

and

Carolus-Duran Charles Auguste Émile Durand, known as Carolus-Duran (Lille 4 July 1837 – 17 February 1917 Paris), was a French painter and art instructor. He is noted for his stylish depictions of members of high society in Third Republic France. Biograph ...

and the Englishman

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

. Nauta and his wife travelled a lot to visit foreign museums. He gained esteem from his powerful portraits inspired by the great English portraitists. After the liberation from German occupation in 1945 he received many prestigious commissions for official portraits, of which the high point was the portrait of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

from 1955. In order to work on it he and his wife spent a few days at Chartwell, Churchill's country house, where Churchill posed for the painting. Protestantism and later freemasonry contributed to his spiritual formation. His love of Bohemian glass caused him to take up glass painting. Nauta died in Amsterdam in 1957.

Work and genres

The oeuvre of Max Nauta can be divided into four categories: *Paintings, sketches, etchings, watercolours and gouaches of monumental architecture, townscapes, landscapes - he was especially attracted by scenes at night or in snow *Studies of folklore and folk characters in traditional costume of Friesland,

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

and Czechoslovakia *Portraits of members of the Dutch royal family, notables and other commissioning parties Most notable portraits: :*Mayor Feike de Boer, 1946, in the main hall of the wedding rooms in the City Hall of Amsterdam :*Queen Wilhelmina, 1936,

Princess Juliana Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. ...

and Prince Bernhard, 1937 (known from colour reproductions in

De Telegraaf ''De Telegraaf'' (; en, The Telegraph) is the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper. Haro Kraak,Gaat Paul Jansen de crisis bij De Telegraaf oplossen?, '' de Volkskrant'', 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Paul Jansen has been the editor-in-chief s ...

Jubilee book of 1938, portraits which survived the war in many households) :*State portrait of Queen Juliana, 1948, reproduced in the ''Elegance'' of April 1949 :*

, 1955, located in the building of the Second Chamber of the States General in The Hague. *

Painted glass Painted glass refers to two different techniques of decorating glass, both more precisely known by other terms. Firstly, and more correctly, it means enamelled glass, normally relatively small vessels which have been painted with preparations of ...

windows with historical figures and symbols from the Dutch Protestant tradition and freemasonry, spread throughout the Netherlands and England. As a glass painter his feeling for symbolism and allegory came most into its own. He tried to achieve the radiance of the stained glass of the mediaeval cathedrals by using coloured glass as a background for the painting, in which the form and the meaning were paramount. As a result, his work rises beyond the level of art deco, of which it bears traces. For the technical execution of his designs he worked with various

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

glass workshops. His first commission came from the church board of the Low German Reformed Church Woerden in 1925. High points of his oeuvre as a glass artist are to be found in the Grote Kerk of The Hague (1930), the NCRV building at

Hilversum Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilvers ...

, the Dutch Church, Austin Friars in London, the memorial windows of the

Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij or Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (colloquially known as BPM), Dutch for ''Batavian Oil Company'', was the Dutch East Indies and later Indonesian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell oil company established in 1907. ...

in Amsterdam and the 18 windows of St. Andrew's Church,

Roxbourne Roxbourne was a hamlet in the London Borough of Harrow west of Rayners Lane in the north west of Greater London (Historically in the county of Middlesex). It includes the Yeading Brook Yeading Brook is the dominant source of the River Cra ...

Harrow Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England ** Harrow, London, a town in London ** Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) ...

, West London, England. This last commission represents the height of his metaphysically inspired work. Herdenkingsraam Shell-laboratorium.jpg, Window of remembrance, Shell laboratory St Andrew, Malvern Avenue, Harrow - Window - geograph.org.uk - 1691228.jpg, St. Andrew's Church, Roxbourne The Dutch Church, Austin Friars, London EC2 - West window detail - geograph.org.uk - 1213541.jpg, Austin Friars, London His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...

. Nauta's work was included in the 1939 exhibition and sale '' Onze Kunst van Heden'' (Our Art of Today) at the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

in Amsterdam.

Collections

Works by Max Nauta are held in the following collections among others: * Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam. * Dutch royal family * Het Loo Palace, Apeldoorn *Amsterdam City Hall (Stadhuis) *

Second Chamber Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...

building, States General, The Hague

References

Sources

* Jacobs, P.M.J.E., 2000: ''Beeldend Benelux: biografisch handboek'', vol. 4, p. 406–407; Tilburg: Stichting Studiecentrum voor beeldende kunst * Pluym, Willem van der; M. Muller; Emile van Loo: ''Max Nauta''. Amsterdam, Het Hollandsche Uitgevershuis, 1948 * Scheen, Pieter A., 1969-1970: "Nauta, Max". In: ''Lexicon der Nederlandse Beeldende Kunstenaars'', vol. 2, p. 95

Life

Work and genres

Collections

References

Sources

Further reading