Andreas Schelfhout (1787–1870) was a Dutch painter, etcher and lithographer, known for his

landscape paintings A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Diction ...

. Schelfhout belongs to the

Romantic movement Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. His Dutch winter scenes and frozen canals with skaters were already famous during his lifetime. He became one of the most influential Dutch landscape artists of his century.

Biography

Schelfhout started as a house painter in the framing business of his father. He already started painting pictures in his spare time. After a well-received first exhibition in The Hague, his father sent him to receive proper training to Joannes Breckenheimer (1772–1856), a stage designer, in The Hague. He learned not only the technical aspects of painting, but also made detailed studies of the 17th-century Dutch landscape artists Meindert Hobbema and

Jacob van Ruisdael Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (; 1629 – 10 March 1682) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achie ...

. In 1815, Schelfhout started his own workshop and became a member of the Pulchri studio. Through his technical excellence and sense of composition and his use of naturalistic colours, he soon became famous also outside The Hague. In 1819 he was awarded the Gold Medal at the exhibition in Antwerp. In 1818 he became a member of the Royal Academy for Visual Arts of Amsterdam. He reputation continued to grow and in 1822 he was given the rank of Fourth Class Correspondent of the Royal Dutch Institute. From then on, one exhibition followed after another. Initially Schelfhout painted mainly summer scenes, beach scenes, and animal paintings. But as his initial winter scenes even had more success, he began to include them in his exhibitions. He was mainly a studio artist, relying on his sketches done ''en plein air''. His sketchbook ''Liber Veritatis'' (Book of Truth) shows that he made about twenty paintings a year, among them a few foreign views. This indicated that he travelled abroad around 1825. In later years he visited France in 1833, England in 1835 (especially to study the works of

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...

) and Germany. In 1839 he was awarded the title Ridder in de orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, and in 1844 he was awarded an honorary membership in Kunst zij ons doel. Schelfhout provided training to many painters who would become famous in their own right : Johan Jongkind (one of the forerunners of the Impressionists), Charles Leickert, Johannes Josephus Destree, Jan Willem van Borselen, Nicholas Roosenboom, his daughter Margaretha and her husband Johannes Gijsbert Vogel, Willem Troost, the American Hudson River School Painter Louis Rémy Mignot and his son-in-law Wijnand Nuyen. He also occasionally painted with his friend Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen, a prominent Romantic landscape painter, including at least one joint canvas that bears both of their signatures. Schelfhout advocated the use of watercolour in ''

en plein air ''En plein air'' (; French language, French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein ai ...

'' sketching. His watercolours greatly influenced Jongkind,

Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch, also known as Hendrik Johannes Weissenbruch (born 19 June 1824 in The Hague – died 24 March 1903 in The Hague) was a Dutch painter of the Hague School. He is noted especially for his watercolours. Biography Hendrik Jo ...

and Willem Roelofs, the latter pair associated with the Hague School of painting and students of Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen. Weissenbruch and Jongkind are especially recognized as masters of the technique. Schelfhout encouraged Weissenbruch and invited him to take lessons from him, but it is not clear whether Weissenbruch ever did.De Leeuw ''et al'' pp. 23, 44, 56, 275 At the end of his career Schelfhout put together a series of eighty landscape drawings, mainly recordings of previous paintings and watercolours. They were drawn in chalk and lightly coloured. Schelfhout's death marked the end of the Romantic period in Holland. He is considered a precursor of the Hague School. His paintings are on display in several leading museums : *

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the S ...

, Amsterdam * Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam *Dordrechts museum,

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

Teylers Museum Teylers Museum () is an Art museum, art, Natural history museum, natural history, and science museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. Established in 1778, Teylers Museum was founded as a centre for contemporary art and science. The historic centre of the ...

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

, *, Oss * KMSK, Antwerp * MSK, Gent *

Groeningemuseum The Groeningemuseum is a municipal museum in Bruges, Belgium, built on the site of the medieval Eekhout Abbey. It houses a collection of Flemish and Belgian painting covering six centuries, from Jan van Eyck to Marcel Broodthaers. The museu ...

, Brugge *

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

, London *The

Wallace Collection The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse (Great Britain), townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquess of Hertford, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wall ...

, London *

Tyne and Wear Museums North East Museums (previously Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums / TWAM) is a regional group of United Kingdom National Museums of the United Kingdom, national museums and the county archives service located across the Tyne and Wear area of north-ea ...

Gallery of Works

File:Andreas Schelfhout - Figuren en koeien bij een meer in een bosrijk landschap.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Figures and cattle beside a lake in a wooded landscape'', c. 1818; oil on panel File:Small street in Huy, Belgium.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Small street in Huy, Belgium'', c. 1824; oil on panel File:Boerenerf, SK-A-4197.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Boerenschuur / Farmyard'', c. 1820-30; oil on paper File:SA 1797-De stranding van een schip te Scheveningen bij stormachtig weer-"Het stranden van een schip te Scheveningen bij stormachtig weder".jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Ship stranded at

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

'', 1837; oil on panel File:Andreas Schelfhout - Rivière gelée avec patineurs.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Winter met schaatsers / Winter with skaters'', 1838; oil on canvas File:Andreas Schelfhout - Rivierenlandschap bij Haarlem met windmolen en de ruïne van Brederode.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''River landscape near

with windmill and the ruins of Brederode'', 1839; oil on panel File:Winter landscape, by Andreas Schelfhout.jpg, A. Schelfhout, 1841: ''Winter landscape'', oil on canvas File:Winter landscape with horses on the ice, by Andreas Schelfhout.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Winter landscape with horses on the ice'', 1844; oil on panel File:Andreas Schelfhout - Landschap bij Haarlem - 2356 (OK) - Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Landscape near

'', 1851; oil-painting File:Een rotsachtige kust Rijksmuseum SK-A-4665.jpeg, A. Schelfhout, ''Rocky coast'', 1852; pastel on paper File:Andries Schelfhout Bewaldete Landschaft 1858.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Landscape with Ruin and Mountains'', 1858; watercolor on paper File:Andreas Schelfhout - Figures buiten een boerderij.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Figures outside a farmstead'', undated; pen, Indian ink and watercolor on paper File:Andreas Schelfhout - Landschap tussen Calais en Boulogne.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Landscape between Calais and Boulogne'', undated; brown pen and pencil on paper File:Andreas Schelfhout - Winterlandschap met diverse mensen op het ijs.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''Winter-landscape'', undated; pencil on paper File:A Wooded Landscape Near Beekhuizen MET DP800685.jpg, A. Schelfhout, ''A Wooded Landscape Near Beekhuizen'', undated; watercolor over black chalk, on paper

Bibliography

* Leeuw, Ronald de; Sillervis, John and Dumas, Charles (1983): ''The Hague School: Dutch Masters of the Nineteenth Century'', Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, .

References

External links

Artist biography at Burlington Paintings

biography facts and dates of A. Schelfhout
in the Dutch R.K.D. Archive, The Hague
many free images of paintings, drawings and prints of A. Schelfhout
in the RijksStudio of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam {{DEFAULTSORT:Schelfhout, Andreas 1787 births 1870 deaths 19th-century etchers 19th-century Dutch lithographers 19th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters Dutch landscape painters Artists from The Hague Hague School 19th-century Dutch male artists Dutch etchers