Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst (4 December 1868,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

- 31 December 1938,

Bloemendaal Bloemendaal () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Bloemendaal is, together with Wassenaar, the wealthiest place in the Netherlands. In October 2015, after persistent problems with the local gover ...

) was a Dutch painter, draftsman,

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone ( lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German ...

, book cover designer,

etcher Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and writer. Many of his works were in a modified

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and real ...

style.

Life and work

His father, Adriaan Roland Holst, was a manufacturer and

underwriter Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liabili ...

. His nephew, also named

Adriaan Roland Holst Adriaan Roland Holst (Amsterdam, 23 May 1888 – Bergen, North Holland, 5 August 1976) was a Dutch writer, nicknamed the "Prince of Dutch Poets". He was the second winner, in 1948, of the Constantijn Huygens Prize. He was nominated for th ...

, was a well known poet. From 1885 to 1890, he studied at the

Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten 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 ...

with

August Allebé August Allebé (19 April 1838 – 10 January 1927) was an artist and teacher from the Northern Netherlands. His early paintings were in a romantic style, but in his later work he was an exponent of realism and impressionism. He was a major initia ...

, among others. After 1918, he was teacher there and served as Director from 1926 to 1934. In 1896, he married the poet and revolutionary, Henriette van der Schalk. Along with his wife, Holst was a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and a close friend of the leftist writer,

Herman Gorter Herman Gorter (26 November 1864, Wormerveer – 15 September 1927, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels) was a Dutch poet and socialist. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers, a highly influential group of Dutch writers who worked together ...

. Later in his life, he was in a relationship with fellow artist Debora Duyvis from about 1926 until his death. Holst made numerous woodcuts, designed posters, and provided illustrations for Henriette's works, as well as designing the

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

. Although most of his works were small in scale, he also created murals for the

Beurs van Berlage The Beurs van Berlage is a building on the Damrak, in the centre of Amsterdam. It was designed as a commodity exchange by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage and constructed between 1896 and 1903. It influenced many modernist architects, in par ...

, the office of the

General Diamond Workers' Union of the Netherlands The General Diamond Workers' Union of the Netherlands (Dutch: ''Algemene Nederlandse Diamantbewerkers Bond''; abbreviated ANDB) was a trade union for diamond workers in the Netherlands from 1894 to the 1920s. In 1893, the National Labor Secretaria ...

(known as the ""), and the building of the

Supreme Court of the Netherlands The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ( nl, Hoge Raad der Nederlanden or simply ''Hoge Raad''), officially the High Council of the Netherlands, is the final court of appeal in civil, criminal and tax cases in the Netherlands, including Curaçao ...

in The Hague. Later, he designed stained glass windows for St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht and several public buildings. Holst attached great importance to collaborations between artists from different disciplines, and is often referred to as a "community artist". He was heavily influenced by the ideas of the writer,

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

; treating art as an

idealistic In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to id ...

, service-oriented activity that emphasized purity and clear form. This influence may have been reflected in his harsh criticism of

Johanna van Gogh-Bonger Johanna (Jo) Gezina van Gogh-Bonger (4 October 1862 – 2 September 1925) was a multilingual Dutch editor and translator of the letters of the van Gogh brothers. Sister-in-law of the painter Vincent van Gogh, and wife of his brother Theo van G ...

while she was organizing an exhibition of the works of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, her brother-in-law, in 1892: Holst has a statue on the Parnassusweg, on the bridge over the ; together with statues of the architect,

Hendrik Petrus Berlage Hendrik Petrus Berlage (21 February 1856 – 12 August 1934) was a Dutch architect. He is considered one of the fathers of the architecture of the Amsterdam School. Life and work Hendrik Petrus Berlage, son of Nicolaas Willem Berlage and An ...

, and the sculptor,

Joseph Mendes da Costa Joseph Mendes da Costa (4 November 1863 – 20 July 1939) was a Dutch sculptor and teacher. Life and work Mendes da Costa was born in Amsterdam to the sculptor Moses Mendes da Costa and Esther Teixeira de Mattos, sister of Henri Teixeira de Mat ...

. They were created in 1940/41 by the sculptor,

Hildo Krop Hildebrand Lucien (Hildo) Krop (February 26, 1884, Steenwijk, Overijssel – August 20, 1970) was a prolific Dutch sculptor and furniture designer, widely known as the city sculptor of Amsterdam, where his work is well represented. Life Krop was ...

, but could not be installed until after the war, due to opposition from the German occupation forces.

Selected works

De Architect.jpg, Cover for
''De architect'' Goethe's Faust.jpeg, Poster for

Goethe's Faust ''Faust'' is a tragic play in two parts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, usually known in English as '' Faust, Part One'' and '' Faust, Part Two''. Nearly all of Part One and the majority of Part Two are written in rhymed verse. Although rarely ...

File:Richard Roland Holst 001.gif, Mural at the Diamond Worker's Union File:Richard Roland Holst - Anangke (Necessity).jpg, Necessity Jan Verkade (1868-1946) schilderend onder een boom (1891) Rijksmuseum SK-A-4737.jpeg,

Jan Verkade Johannes Sixtus Gerhardus (Jan) Verkade (18 September 1868 - 19 July 1946), afterwards Willibrord Verkade O.S.B., was a Dutch Post-Impressionist and Christian Symbolist painter. A disciple of Paul Gauguin and friend of Paul Sérusier, he belon ...

Painting Under a Tree

Sources

* A.M. Hammacher (1938) "Geteekende portretten en koppen van R.N. Roland Holst", ''Maandblad Beeldende Kunst'' jrg. 25, afl. 1 *Roland Holst, H. (1940) "Kinderjaren en jeugd van R. N. Roland Holst", Zeist : Ploegsma. * Schathorn, P. (1979) "Legaat R. N. Roland Holst"; in: exhibition catalogue,

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Sted ...

, Amsterdam * Rijnders, M. (1992) ''R.N. Roland Holst, Amsterdam : Stadsuitgeverij Amsterdam'' * Tibbe, L. (1994) ''R.N. Roland Holst - Arbeid en schoonheid vereend''. Opvattingen over gemeenschapskunst, Amsterdam : Architectura & Natura * Heijden, Marien van der, "Biografie Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst" (Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis), 10 February 2003. *Elsbeth Etty & Ron Dirven (2012) ''Henriëtte & Richard Roland Holst : het boek van de Buisssche Heide'', Schiedam : Scriptum Art Books

References

External links

Biography and source materials
@ DBNL

@ the ''Biografisch Woordenboek voor het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbeweging'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Holst, Richard Roland 1868 births 1938 deaths Dutch painters Dutch poster artists Dutch designers Dutch lithographers Dutch socialists Painters from Amsterdam