Petrus Kiers (5 January 1807, "Het Groeneveld", near

Meppel Meppel (; Drents: ''Möppelt'') is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It constitutes the southwestern part of the province of Drenthe. Meppel is the smallest municipality in Drenthe, with a total area of about . As of 1 July ...

– 17 November 1875,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

) was a Dutch painter, graphic artist and photographer. He created portraits,

still-life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or human-made (drinking glasses, books, ...

s and cityscapes, but he is best known for his

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

scenes, lit by lamps or candles.

Biography

His first lessons were with the portrait and

painter

Douwe de Hoop Douwe de Hoop (24 March 1800, Workum – 27 October 1830, Amsterdam) was a Dutch painter and draftsman. Life and work His father, Jan de Hoop, was a wood miller. His family wanted him to pursue a career in commerce, but he chose to go against th ...

. From 1825 to 1826, he attended the

Rijksakademie The Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) was founded in 1870 in Amsterdam. It is a classical academy, a place where philosophers, academics and artists meet to test and exchange ideas and knowledge. The school supports ...

.Profile @ the

Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie 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 ...

. He would continue to work mostly in Amsterdam but, beginning in the 1860s, also worked in

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Jan ...

, especially in

Assen Assen () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in ...

. In 1837, he married the painter Elisabeth Alida Haanen, daughter of the artist Casparis Haanen. Their son, George (1838–1916) became a

marine art Marine art or maritime art is a form of figurative art (that is, painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture) that portrays or draws its main Sea in culture, inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea� ...

ist and their daughter, Catharina (1839–1930), was a still-life painter. Elisabeth died in 1845 and he remarried in 1850, having two more children. In 1841, he won a silver medal in a competition held by the

Felix Meritis Felix Meritis ("Happy through Merit") is the name of an intellectual society in Amsterdam, but subsequently used for the building they built for themselves on the Keizersgracht. History It was built according to a winning design by the arc ...

Society. He was a member of

Arti et Amicitiae Arti et Amicitiae (lat .: For Art and Friendship) is a Dutch artist's society founded in 1839, and located on the Rokin in Amsterdam. The Society (also called Arti for short) has played a key role in the Netherlands art scene and in particular in ...

and, in 1856, he was appointed a member of the Rijksakademie.Excerpt from ''De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders,...''
by Christiaan Kramm @ DBNL. He exhibited widely, including shows in Paris and New York. Maria Vos was among his best-known students. He also gained a reputation as a pioneering photographer. For several years he was a partner in a photography studio with Johann Benjamin Snoek (1816–1864). Later, he had his own studio in Assen.

References

External links

ArtNet: More works by Kiers.Petrus Kiers works
at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

Petrus Kiers
@ the Documentatie van Beeldende Kunst in Noord-Holland. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiers, Petrus 1807 births 1875 deaths 19th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters People from Meppel Dutch portrait painters Dutch genre painters Dutch still life painters 19th-century Dutch male artists

Biography

References

Further reading

External links