Jan Mankes (15 August 1889 – 23 April 1920) was a Dutch painter. He produced around 200 paintings, 100 drawings and 50 prints before dying of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

at the age of 30. His restrained, detailed work ranged from self-portraits to landscapes and studies of birds and animals. His work is now exhibited in his native Netherlands in the Museum Arnhem, Museum Belvédère and Museum MORE.

Biography

Mankes had a reputation as an ascetic living in a kind of self-chosen isolation in De Knipe,

Friesland Friesland ( ; ; official ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia (), named after the Frisians, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen (p ...

, far from the

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

of the country's culture. In reality he was well aware of what was going on, read the leading newspapers and magazines, and was supplied by friends with newspaper clippings and other material. In addition, he had lived in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

and (because of his tuberculosis) in

Eerbeek Eerbeek is a town in the municipality of Brummen in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. Eerbeek was first mentioned in 1046 as ''Erbeke''. In the 18th century, Eerbeek became a centre of paper production. Due to its proximity to the Ve ...

, in Gelderland, but preferred to keep an "intimate distance". A progressive Protestant, in 1915 he married Anne Zernike, the country's first female minister with a doctoral degree. Zernike was a

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

; a drawing of her, made by Mankes in 1911, is in the collection of the

Fries Museum The Fries Museum (Frisian Museum) is a museum in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. It has won the Global Fine Art Award which is sometimes nicknamed the Museum-Oscar. History (1881–2012) The museum was founded on 13 April 1881 by the "''Provincial Fries ...

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; ; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 127,073 (2023). It is the provincial capital and seat of the Provin ...

. From 1909 onwards he was financially supported by A.A.M. Pauwels (1875–1952), a tobacco merchant and art collector from The Hague. Mankes' letters to Pauwels, in which he often thanks him for money and material sent to him, take up seven hundred pages (including annotations) and were published in 2012 by the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

; Pauwels' letters are not preserved.

Style and technique

He is sometimes categorized as a symbolic realist, though Carel Peeters notes that the abstract qualities of Mankes's work remove him from both symbolism and realism. When working with oil paints he was able to bring a kind of transparency to the paint especially when he was working with white, which acquired a pearly lustre because of his soft brush strokes. In self-portraits, observers noted, this gave his white skin a rather sickly appearance. Mankes studied and then sketched his subjects (often birds and farm animals) "until he knew them by heart, and then painted them from memory". One of his favorite animals (he kept it in his room) was an owl, sent to him by his benefactor Pauwels. Mankes used a glazing technique, in which a large number of layers of paint on an opaque base "lend a fairytale-like quality to the owl".

Gallery

File:JanMankesOlieflesje1909.jpg, Oil-bottle (1909) File:White rabbit, standing, by Jan Mankes.jpg, White rabbit (1910) File:Jan Mankes-De Knijpe.jpg, Road alongside the canal in de Knijpe (1914) File:Mankes-Zernike.jpg, Anne Mankes-Zernike (1916) File:Mankes Nestkuiken.jpg, Nestkuiken (1917) File:Jan Mankes (painter), View from the Studio in Eerbeek, 1917.jpg, View from the Studio in Eerbeek (1917) File:Mankes Woudsterweg bij Oranjewoud.jpg, Woudster road near Oranjewoud File:Mankes Jonge witte geit.jpg, Young white goat

References

External links

Jan Mankes at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mankes, Jan 1889 births 1920 deaths 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis People from Meppel Tuberculosis deaths in the Netherlands 20th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters 20th-century Dutch male artists