Floris Hendrik Verster (9 June 1861 – 21 January 1927) was a Dutch painter.

Life

Verster came from an artistic family. His father, Abraham Florentius Verster van Wulverhorst, was an administrator of the National Museum of Natural History in Leiden and a renowned scholar and painter of birds. His younger brother Cees developed into an art critic and later a curator of the

Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal Museum De Lakenhal is the city museum of fine art and history in Leiden, Netherlands. One highlight is its collection of fijnschilder paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. Just like the city, the museum combines a classical appearance with a contem ...

in Leiden. Hendrik took drawing lessons from Gerardus Johannes Bos and, in the winter of 1878–79, from

George Hendrik Breitner George Hendrik Breitner (12 September 1857 – 5 June 1923) was a Dutch painter and photographer. An important figure in Amsterdam Impressionism, he is noted especially for his paintings of street scenes and harbours in a realistic style. He pa ...

when he briefly worked as a lecturer in Leiden. Between 1880 and 1884 Verster continued his training at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague where he counted among his fellow-students George Hendrik Breitner,

Isaac Israëls Isaac Lazarus Israëls (3 February 1865 – 7 October 1934) was a Dutch painter associated with the Amsterdam Impressionism movement. Biography The son of Jozef Israëls, one of the most respected painters of the Hague School, and Aleida ...

and

Willem de Zwart Wilhelmus "Willem" Hendrikus Petrus Johannes de Zwart (16 May 1862 The Hague – 11 December 1931 The Hague) was a Dutch painter, engraver, and watercolorist with many connections to the Hague School and later associated with the Amsterdam Im ...

. After graduation, he briefly attended classes at Amedee Bourson in Brussels. From 1882 until 1892 he shared a studio in Leiden with his future brother-in-law, the still-life painter (he married Jenny Kamerlingh Onnes in 1892). Until about 1885 he worked in the style of the

Hague School The Hague School is a group of artists who lived and worked in The Hague between 1860 and 1890. Their work was heavily influenced by the realist painters of the French Barbizon school. The painters of the Hague school generally made use of relati ...

. The next seven years he experimented in still life painting under the influence of his brother-in-law and of French painters

Antoine Vollon Antoine Vollon (23 April 1833 – 27 August 1900) was a French Realism (arts), realist artist, best known as a painting, painter of still lifes, landscape art, landscapes, and figure painting, figures. During his lifetime, Vollon was a successful ...

and

Théodule Ribot Théodule-Augustin Ribot (August 8, 1823September 11, 1891) was a French realist painter and printmaker. He was born in Saint-Nicolas-d'Attez, and studied at the École des Arts et Métiers de Châlons before moving to Paris in 1845. There he ...

. As a colorist he excelled, his passionate color vision differing from the current Hague School style. In Brussels he met

Jan Toorop Johannes Theodorus 'Jan' TooropJan Toorop
Les Vingt. Partly under their influence Verster began working with a rough brush strokes and intense colors. He gained success with his large and exuberant works of floral still lifes and landscapes. In 1891 he took part in the salon of Les XX in Brussels. Between 1892 and 1900 his work underwent a metamorphosis as it became almost entirely devoted to drawings in crayons with serene subjects. From 1900 onwards he began to paint and established himself as a celebrated artist in the Netherlands. Major collections of his works are in the

Kröller-Müller Museum The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of ...

and the

in Leiden. On 21 January 1927 he was found dead, in a pond. What happened has never been ascertained.

Selected paintings

File:Floris Verster, Stilleven met zinnia's in een gemberpot.jpg, Still Life with

Zinnia ''Zinnia'' is a genus of plants of the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae. They are native to scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the Southwestern United States to South America, with a centre of diversity in Mexico. ...

s in a Ginger Pot File:Floris Verster, Anemonen.jpg,

Anemone ''Anemone'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Plants of the genus are commonly called windflowers. They are native to the temperate and subtropical regions of all continents except Australia, New Zealand ...

s File:Floris Verster - Stilleven met flessen.jpg, Still Life with Bottles File:Floris Verster - Winters gezicht op dorpje aan het water.jpg, Winter Scene Floris Verster, Gezicht in het atelier van Floris Verster, 1888, aquarel op papier.jpg, A View of His Studio

References

External links

Works at the Kröller-Müller Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verster, Floris 1861 births 1927 deaths Artists from Leiden 19th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters 20th-century Dutch painters 19th-century Dutch male artists 20th-century Dutch male artists