Dirk Baksteen (29 March 1886 in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
– 24 September 1971 in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
,) was a Belgian painter and etcher.
Baksteen, the son of Dirk Baksteen and Jansje van Heiningen, grew up in a family of ten children and had to help support the family as a house painter. However, Baksteen, like his brother Gerard, became a painter at a young age.
Baksteen ended up in Antwerp in 1912 on the advice of his brother. In the Kempen, both brothers came into contact with the Rotterdam-born painter Jakob Smits. His brother moved back to Antwerp, but Baksteen stayed with Smits to learn from him as a painter. Baksteen did not follow an academic painting course like his brother. Smits and Baksteen spent many hours in Smits' studio, who soon understood that Baksteen had more aptitude for graphic arts. Due to his stay in Mol, Baksteen is attributed to the
Molse School. Baksteen's work has been exhibited at the Jacob Smits Museum.
Baksteen's work is held in the permanent collection of the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
,
the
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...
,
the
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...
,
and the Caput Ovis Collection.
An archive folder of reviews of his work, exhibition catalogs and other papers and ephemera on the artist is held in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries Collection.
Literature
* 1926, Jef Vervaecke, 'Dirk Baksteen en de Kempen', Ons Land in Woord en Beeld, 7e jg, nr. 44, 6/2, p698, (5 zw/w afb.)
* Nieuwenhuysen, Piet J. van Dirk Baksteen, De etser van de Kempen, 1886-1971 ISBN 90-72931-16-5
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baksteen, Dirk
Dutch painters
1886 births
1971 deaths