Theodore Cornelius de Groot (December 15, 1920 – July 20, 2019), better known as Dick de Groot, was a Dutch-American painter. He was born 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 ...

, a beach suburb of

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, in 1920. After the usual schooling that prepared him for the business world he decided to follow his old dream of being a

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

. He studied five years at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and took post-graduate classes in sculpture. In 1959 de Groot came to

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

with his wife Hans and five children. He started painting gigantic faces, foaming glasses of beer and entire scenes up to long, for the advertising industry. A good year of this was enough and Dick went on his own, doing murals, portraits in oils or bronze, always on commission. A long period of involvement in business followed and he kept painting in spare time, without the pressure of having to make a living at it.

I refuse to paint "sure sellers", such as the cute, the corny, the romantic, the sentimental, the narrative. My favorite subject is the contemporary American urban scene, which I find exciting and uniquely suited to my taste. I like to use clues that give an illusion of space, or only a suggestion of it around the corner or beyond the hill. The opposites of mass and space, of volumes and voids intrigue me. They are the basis of my compositions. The urban landscape is rich in geometric planes that can be arranged in expressive combinations of color and light-dark values. I want to see each element in my work in harmony with the total. That includes clouds,
traffic sign Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users. The earliest signs were simple wooden or stone milestones. Later, signs with directional arms were introduce ...
s, telephone poles etc. I will change the subject to suit my purpose. Things are moved, added or left out in a process of translating reality into a painted and new reality, that may be subjectively interpreted.

He died in July 2019 at the age of 98.Theodore Cornelius "Dick" de Groot obituary
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References

External links

Paintings by Dick de Groot
1920 births 2019 deaths American painters American sculptors Painters from The Hague Dutch male painters Dutch male sculptors Dutch painters Dutch sculptors Royal Academy of Art, The Hague alumni Dutch emigrants to the United States {{Netherlands-sculptor-stub