DOI Heft:
No. 160 (July, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Quigley, Jane: Volendam as a sketching ground for painters
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20715#0141
Volendam as a
“A VOLENDAM BALCONY” BY J. R. GKEIG
painters must sometimes give up working
in the open, as Holland gets more than its
share of rain; but in spite of interruptions
in actual brushwork they need never be
idle, with the face of Nature ever before
them for study. The opalescent effects of
light in this country of far distances and
wonderful expanse of sky, are at once the
joy and the despair of the painter, and he
will probably learn to yield all personal
leaning toward startling effects, to the sane
and restful methods of modern Dutchmen,
such as Mauve, Maris and Gabriel.
The landscape about Volendam is cha-
racteristic of North Holland. The country,
in common with the people, seems to pos-
sess a certain quality of frank, evident
charm, an extraordinary naivete; no great
heights or depths of feeling, no hillsides
reached by winding roads that tempt
one to explore what lies beyond. Painters
of a certain genre must find great difficulty
in avoiding the temptation to caricature,
for one is apt to forget the human
Sketching Ground
element, and to see merely the pictorial and grotesque
aspect of life, in this village of dolls’ houses and
quaintly - dressed peasants. Some of our great
draughtsmen discovered the place and found it
excellent copy; amongst them Tom Browne and
Phil May, whose drawings of Volendamers have
been much in vogue of late. The latter, especially,
portrayed with his masterly touch the essential cha-
racteristics of these fisher-folk, the swaying move-
ments of burly men, the calm smiling little maidens
who called him “ Phil,” after the primitive fashion of
Volendam.
Many other Englishmen—Haile, Moffat Lindner,
Stanhope Forbes, Aumonier—as well as quite a
legion of American and Continental painters, have
included Volendam in their work in Holland, and
have made delightful pictures of the people and the
place. Hait6 is said to have interpreted it more
truly than other “ foreigners,” but generally speaking,
one must endorse the opinion of cultured Dutchmen,
that no painter from outside can render the peculiar
effects of light and atmosphere in their land, and the
real pathos of Dutch peasant life, as men born and
bred in Holland have done.
Many of the men who worked at Volendam were
“a windy day” (pastel) by m. a. eastlake
120
“A VOLENDAM BALCONY” BY J. R. GKEIG
painters must sometimes give up working
in the open, as Holland gets more than its
share of rain; but in spite of interruptions
in actual brushwork they need never be
idle, with the face of Nature ever before
them for study. The opalescent effects of
light in this country of far distances and
wonderful expanse of sky, are at once the
joy and the despair of the painter, and he
will probably learn to yield all personal
leaning toward startling effects, to the sane
and restful methods of modern Dutchmen,
such as Mauve, Maris and Gabriel.
The landscape about Volendam is cha-
racteristic of North Holland. The country,
in common with the people, seems to pos-
sess a certain quality of frank, evident
charm, an extraordinary naivete; no great
heights or depths of feeling, no hillsides
reached by winding roads that tempt
one to explore what lies beyond. Painters
of a certain genre must find great difficulty
in avoiding the temptation to caricature,
for one is apt to forget the human
Sketching Ground
element, and to see merely the pictorial and grotesque
aspect of life, in this village of dolls’ houses and
quaintly - dressed peasants. Some of our great
draughtsmen discovered the place and found it
excellent copy; amongst them Tom Browne and
Phil May, whose drawings of Volendamers have
been much in vogue of late. The latter, especially,
portrayed with his masterly touch the essential cha-
racteristics of these fisher-folk, the swaying move-
ments of burly men, the calm smiling little maidens
who called him “ Phil,” after the primitive fashion of
Volendam.
Many other Englishmen—Haile, Moffat Lindner,
Stanhope Forbes, Aumonier—as well as quite a
legion of American and Continental painters, have
included Volendam in their work in Holland, and
have made delightful pictures of the people and the
place. Hait6 is said to have interpreted it more
truly than other “ foreigners,” but generally speaking,
one must endorse the opinion of cultured Dutchmen,
that no painter from outside can render the peculiar
effects of light and atmosphere in their land, and the
real pathos of Dutch peasant life, as men born and
bred in Holland have done.
Many of the men who worked at Volendam were
“a windy day” (pastel) by m. a. eastlake
120