Théophile Emile Achille de Bock (14 January 1851, 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 ...

– 22 November 1904, in

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 ...

) was a Dutch painter belonging 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 ...

. Although many denigrate De Bock's work as too gray and too sketchy, Hague School champions love his work. Even

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...

was convinced of De Bocks "artistic temperament", although he eventually found his choice of subject too limited and tried to get De Bock to paint figure studies. But De Bock stuck to the subject he was good at, the Dutch landscapes.

Biography

A town on the river Vecht by Theophile de Bock (1851-1904)

Born in The Hague, De Bock started out as a clerk for the Dutch Railway Company, but then turned to painting full-time, when the work interfered with his drawing. He trained in The Hague under the landscape painters J.W. van Borselen, J.H. Weissenbruch and

Jacob Maris Jacob Hendricus Maris (August 25, 1837 – August 7, 1899) was a Dutch painter, who with his brothers Willem and Matthijs belonged to what has come to be known as the Hague School of painters. He was considered to be the most important and influen ...

. He also spent time with

Willem Maris Willem Maris (18 February 1844 – 10 October 1910) was a Dutch landscape painter of the Hague School. Biography He was born in The Hague. Willem was the third in a family of five children. His two brothers Jacob and Matthijs Maris preceded him ...

and probably was one of his students as well. In 1880, De Bock traveled to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Barbizon Barbizon () is a commune (town) in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. It is located near the Fontainebleau Forest. Demographics The inhabitants are called ''Barbizonais''. Art history The Barbizon school of painters is name ...

where he would often return, perhaps because of his appreciation for the work of

Millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...

and

Corot CoRoT (French: ; English: Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly th ...

. It was especially Corot and Jacob Maris who would influence De Bock greatly. In 1881 he contributed to the Panorama Mesdag of

Hendrik Willem Mesdag Hendrik Willem Mesdag (23 February 1831 – 10 July 1915) was a Dutch marine painter. Biography He was born in Groningen, the son of the banker Klaas Mesdag and his wife Johanna Wilhelmina van Giffen. Mesdag was encouraged by his fath ...

, where he painted the sky and dunes. He enticed Van Gogh to come and see the final work, and Van Gogh wrote enthusiastically about it in his letters to his brother Theo. Around 1880, he worked a great deal in

Scheveningen Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict (''wijk'') of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is po ...

and in the area of

Loosduinen Loosduinen () is a former village in the Netherlands that was a municipality unto itself until 1923, when it was annexed by The Hague and subsequently became a district of the city. Within the district there is also a neighbourhood (Dutch:wijk) c ...

, and from 1884, he also visited other areas. In the autumn of 1885, he went to

Drente Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...

for the first time, and when he returned there the following summer, he took

Isaac Israëls Isaac Lazarus Israëls (3 February 1865 – 7 October 1934) was a Dutch painter associated with the Amsterdam Impressionism movement. Biography The son of Jozef Israëls, one of the most respected painters of the Hague School, and Aleida ...

with him. His landscapes are often heavy and gloomy, and his oil sketches of the megaliths were often monumental. He wrote, "My idea of life is to reproduce and interpret all that I see and feel to be beautiful around me." Although he hardly ever drew figures, his interest in the farmers was apparent from the number of short stories he wrote about farm life in Drente. As an alternative to

Pulchri Studio Pulchri Studio (Latin:"For the study of beauty") is a Dutch art society, art institution and art studio based in The Hague ('s-Gravenhage), Netherlands. This institute began in 1847 at the home of painter Lambertus Hardenberg. Since 1893 the c ...

, the Hague Art Circle was founded 1891 on the initiative of De Bock. Its goal was to promote the various artistic expressions such as the visual arts, crafts, architecture, music, musical arts and writing. De Bock became chairman of Visual Art and of the board. Although many painters were members of both organizations, the Art Circle offered the generation after 1850 an alternative to the Pulchri Studio, in which the renowned Hague School artists such as Mesdag, Israëls, and Jacob Maris were members. An exhibition organized in 1892 by Jan Toorop, which included works by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

, was a major success and the avant-garde reputation of the Art Circle was established.

Gallery

File:2017-02 Théophile de Bock - View of Kampen harbour.jpg, View of Kampen Harbor File:Dutch Painting in the 19th Century - De Bock - On the Heelsum Road.png, On the Heelsum Road. File:Hunebed Theophile de Bock.jpg, Sketch of Hunnebedden (megalithic monuments). File:Theophole de Bock, Barbizon.jpg, ''Barbizon, 1880'', Coll. Kunsthandel Pygmalion, Maarssen (Netherlands)

Sources

*Sillevis, John and Tabak, Anne, ''The Hague School Book'', Waanders Uitgegevers, Zwolle, 2004 (pp 341–346)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bock, Theophile De 1851 births 1914 deaths Hague School Artists from The Hague 19th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters 20th-century Dutch painters 19th-century Dutch male artists 20th-century Dutch male artists