Taco Scheltema I - Portret van Gerrit van der Pals - 10677 A B - Museum Rotterdam

Taco Scheltema, or Take Pieters Scheltema (16 August 1766 – 7 September 1837) was a Dutch portrait painter.

Biography

He was born in Harlingen as the son of an innkeeper named Pieter Scheltes Scheltema (1702–1771). After a short time in Amsterdam, studying drawing and painting with the portrait and landscape painter Pleun Piera (1734–1799), he qualified for admission to the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Jetelová, ...

. Upon graduation, he travelled through

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

and Holland; eventually settling in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

in 1794, where he had been commissioned to paint the founders and administrators of the

Batavian Society for Experimental Philosophy The Batavian Society for Experimental Philosophy ( nl, Bataafsch Genootschap voor Proefondervindelijke Wijsbegeerte) is a Dutch learned society residing in Rotterdam. History The society was founded on June 3, 1769 after Steven Hoogendijk declared ...

. He ultimately established his studio in

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both banks of ...

and, throughout his career, mostly focused on family paintings. In 1799 he married Jacomina van Nijmegen (1768–1825), with whom he had five children. He died in 1837 in Arnhem. His descendants included several other artists; notably his grandson, Taco Jan Scheltema (1831–1867), who is represented in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, as well as

Jan Hendrik Scheltema Jan Hendrik Scheltema (23 August 1861, in The Hague – 9 December 1941, in Brisbane), was a Dutch and later Australian painter who had a prolific, often strenuous, and arguably impressive career in Australia considering he was a non-British mi ...

(1861 The Hague–1941 Brisbane) and Leendert Scheltema (1876–1966), who would specialize in landscapes.

Sources

*A. Staring, "Een vergeten Portrettist: Taco Scheltema", in: ''Oud-Holland'', #54 (1937), pgs. 193-213. *''

Nederland's Patriciaat ''Nederland's Patriciaat'', informally known as ''Het Blauwe Boekje'' (the little blue book), is a book series published annually since 1910, containing the genealogies of important Dutch patrician non-noble families. It is published by the Centraal ...

'', #27 (1941), pgs. 218-288. * J. H. Brouwer (ed.), ''

Encyclopedie van Friesland The ''Encyclopedie van Friesland'' is a Dutch language encyclopedia about the Friesland Province, Netherlands published in 1958 by Elsevier. In addition to an encyclopedic section, it consists of a compendium on, among other things, Frisian la ...

'', Elsevier 1958

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheltema, Taco 1766 births 1837 deaths Dutch male painters Dutch portrait painters People from Friesland 18th-century Dutch painters 18th-century Dutch male artists 19th-century Dutch painters Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni 19th-century Dutch male artists