DOI issue:
No. 82 (January, 1900)
DOI article:Zilcken, Philippe: The late Jacob Maris
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19783#0258
Jacob Maris
with each other, no empty spaces are left open,
and no effect in any of his best pictures was
obtained by chance. It is true that his style
seems careless to many, but this carelessness is
always masterly, and it will bear the closest
examination.
Baudelaire has said with irony : " LHnspiratiofi
c'est de travailler tout les jours." That is what
Jacob Maris did, never leaving anything to chance
or so-called inspiration.
About 1840 there lived at The Hague a simple
compositor who had much difficulty in bringing
up his family, three sons and two girls. The
three boys were endowed with uncommon gifts for
painting. Jacob, born in 1837, was the eldest, and
from his earliest youth he drew everything he saw
around him, and even at that time made portraits
of his father and mother.
He went to one of the elementary schools, where
his master soon perceived his special aptitude for
art and warmly recommended him to Mr. Stroebel,
an artist who painted " interiors " similar to those
of Pieter De Hooghe. Mr. Stroebel survived his
young pupil, and I saw him, deeply moved, stand-
ing at the open grave.
At the instance of the'"schoolmaster Jacob Maris
was allowed to entet Stroebel's studio, where he
copied the lithographs of Robert, using black
and white chalk and tinted paper. But what con-
tributed most of all to his development was the
daily task of making water-colour sketches of
common things.
After working for some time under Mr. Stroebel's
guidance, an art dealer, foreseeing his future suc-
cesses, decided, in accordance with the views of
Louis Meyer, a Dutch marine painter in the genre
of Gudin, that he should attend the studio of
Huib van Hove. This painter had about ten
pupils, and they all worked with him in an old
chapel which he had altered into a studio.
Jacob Maris had not long been there, working
assiduously, when van Hove, compelled by finan-
cial straits, had to leave The Hague and go to
Antwerp, where Maris followed him.
Here began for Maris the real life of a prentice-
boy. His master, instead of developing the boy's
JACOB MARIS'S STUDIO
232
FROM A RHOTOORAITI BY M. VAN DER ORIENT
with each other, no empty spaces are left open,
and no effect in any of his best pictures was
obtained by chance. It is true that his style
seems careless to many, but this carelessness is
always masterly, and it will bear the closest
examination.
Baudelaire has said with irony : " LHnspiratiofi
c'est de travailler tout les jours." That is what
Jacob Maris did, never leaving anything to chance
or so-called inspiration.
About 1840 there lived at The Hague a simple
compositor who had much difficulty in bringing
up his family, three sons and two girls. The
three boys were endowed with uncommon gifts for
painting. Jacob, born in 1837, was the eldest, and
from his earliest youth he drew everything he saw
around him, and even at that time made portraits
of his father and mother.
He went to one of the elementary schools, where
his master soon perceived his special aptitude for
art and warmly recommended him to Mr. Stroebel,
an artist who painted " interiors " similar to those
of Pieter De Hooghe. Mr. Stroebel survived his
young pupil, and I saw him, deeply moved, stand-
ing at the open grave.
At the instance of the'"schoolmaster Jacob Maris
was allowed to entet Stroebel's studio, where he
copied the lithographs of Robert, using black
and white chalk and tinted paper. But what con-
tributed most of all to his development was the
daily task of making water-colour sketches of
common things.
After working for some time under Mr. Stroebel's
guidance, an art dealer, foreseeing his future suc-
cesses, decided, in accordance with the views of
Louis Meyer, a Dutch marine painter in the genre
of Gudin, that he should attend the studio of
Huib van Hove. This painter had about ten
pupils, and they all worked with him in an old
chapel which he had altered into a studio.
Jacob Maris had not long been there, working
assiduously, when van Hove, compelled by finan-
cial straits, had to leave The Hague and go to
Antwerp, where Maris followed him.
Here began for Maris the real life of a prentice-
boy. His master, instead of developing the boy's
JACOB MARIS'S STUDIO
232
FROM A RHOTOORAITI BY M. VAN DER ORIENT