DOI Heft:
No. 189 (November, 1912)
DOI Artikel:Peckham, W. G.: Johannes Hendricus Jurres
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43451#0368
Johannes Hendricus Jurres
Formerly in the Collection of Mr. Alfred Henry Lewis
THE PRODIGAL SON BY JOHANNES H. JURRES
and the splendor of light that only Spanish artists
find at home, and make their own.
Now comes a Dutch painter, Johannes Hend-
ricus Jurres, who first did hard work in Holland
and later spent years of faithful study in Spain,
and who paints men that are quite human and un-
artificial. His creations are none of them vanities.
His subjects are from theBible, Cervantes, Shakes-
peare and the everyday life of the common folk.
Sometimes he works in the misty note of Holland
and sometimes in the color and light of Spain He
makes one or more sketches of each detail. Jurres
was born in Holland in 1875 and is in his prime
and at work in Amsterdam.
His Don Quixote is not so eccentric as was
Dore’s, but is more kin to us, and should last bet-
ter. A glance at it makes one say: “The proper
study of mankind is man.”
Is this the reason why Israels is the true leader
among many of equally strong technique? Jur-
res’s Don Quixote has the quality of a gentleman,
which quality Lowell said was pre-eminently
the Don’s. That horse is like our old horse.
Those people in the background you may meet
on any back road in Spain. How frequent is
the ability to paint good groups of real men in
action ?
The Spanish Beggars, also, has actuality in it.
These are beggars at their trade, in actual busi-
ness. There is no advertising, there is no sensa-
tion, but there is true valuation and good work.
Even the dog’s attitude is convincing. So is each
beggar’s snivel. So is the ironic smirk on the
rider’s face.
Jurres went to Spain in his twenty-sixth year,
worked at Granada and Madrid, and in the
mountains, and lived with the herders and mine
workers. You see them in his pictures.
In the battle scenes he likewise makes separate
sketches of the details, and works them over, and
finally joins them in the large work. Again, he
takes a broad subject and repeats it in different
phases. Such, for instance, are his vigorous Good
Samaritan and his Prodigal Son and Father and his
Peter and the Cripple.
A Boston artist said: “There are few painters
outside of the States, but your man Jurres does a
horse better than Delacroix or Schreyer.”
His horses are not fanciful. He bought old
horses, to study them and make them his own on
the canvas.
It is a little curious that Jurres was sustained, in
his youth, by a Dutch lawyer, and was exploited
in Canada by a canny critic, an accomplished
king’s counsel, Johnston, of Toronto, who has
written of Jurres:
“The greatness of an artist depends largely on
Collection of Mr. W. G. Peckham
PETER AND THE BY JOHANNES H.
CRIPPLE JURRES
IV
Formerly in the Collection of Mr. Alfred Henry Lewis
THE PRODIGAL SON BY JOHANNES H. JURRES
and the splendor of light that only Spanish artists
find at home, and make their own.
Now comes a Dutch painter, Johannes Hend-
ricus Jurres, who first did hard work in Holland
and later spent years of faithful study in Spain,
and who paints men that are quite human and un-
artificial. His creations are none of them vanities.
His subjects are from theBible, Cervantes, Shakes-
peare and the everyday life of the common folk.
Sometimes he works in the misty note of Holland
and sometimes in the color and light of Spain He
makes one or more sketches of each detail. Jurres
was born in Holland in 1875 and is in his prime
and at work in Amsterdam.
His Don Quixote is not so eccentric as was
Dore’s, but is more kin to us, and should last bet-
ter. A glance at it makes one say: “The proper
study of mankind is man.”
Is this the reason why Israels is the true leader
among many of equally strong technique? Jur-
res’s Don Quixote has the quality of a gentleman,
which quality Lowell said was pre-eminently
the Don’s. That horse is like our old horse.
Those people in the background you may meet
on any back road in Spain. How frequent is
the ability to paint good groups of real men in
action ?
The Spanish Beggars, also, has actuality in it.
These are beggars at their trade, in actual busi-
ness. There is no advertising, there is no sensa-
tion, but there is true valuation and good work.
Even the dog’s attitude is convincing. So is each
beggar’s snivel. So is the ironic smirk on the
rider’s face.
Jurres went to Spain in his twenty-sixth year,
worked at Granada and Madrid, and in the
mountains, and lived with the herders and mine
workers. You see them in his pictures.
In the battle scenes he likewise makes separate
sketches of the details, and works them over, and
finally joins them in the large work. Again, he
takes a broad subject and repeats it in different
phases. Such, for instance, are his vigorous Good
Samaritan and his Prodigal Son and Father and his
Peter and the Cripple.
A Boston artist said: “There are few painters
outside of the States, but your man Jurres does a
horse better than Delacroix or Schreyer.”
His horses are not fanciful. He bought old
horses, to study them and make them his own on
the canvas.
It is a little curious that Jurres was sustained, in
his youth, by a Dutch lawyer, and was exploited
in Canada by a canny critic, an accomplished
king’s counsel, Johnston, of Toronto, who has
written of Jurres:
“The greatness of an artist depends largely on
Collection of Mr. W. G. Peckham
PETER AND THE BY JOHANNES H.
CRIPPLE JURRES
IV