Willem Cornelis Bauer (

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 ...

, 31 July 1862 –

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

, 24 April 1904) also known as Wilhelm Bauer was a Dutch

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Life course

Youth and education

Like his younger brother painter

Marius Bauer Marius Alexander Jacques Bauer (25 January 1867 – 18 July 1932) was a Dutch painter, etcher and lithographer, best known for his Orientalism, Oriental scenes. His style was largely Impressionistic, although it also derived to some extent fro ...

, Willem Cornelis Bauer was born in an art-loving environment, the children learned to draw at an early age. His father, George Hendrik Bauer, was a decorator and his mother, Maria Suzanne Verpoorten, came from a family of painters. Bauer studied at the

Royal Academy of Art The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in The Hague, his fellow students included

Karel de Bazel Karel Petrus Cornelis de Bazel (Den Helder, 14 February 1869—Amsterdam, 28 November 1923) was a modern Netherlands, Dutch architect, engraver, draftsman, furniture designer, carpet designer, glass artist and bookbinding designer. He was the tea ...

, Willem Kromhout. In 1888 he became a member of Architectura et Amicitia, where he also got to know Herman Cornelis Jorissen, Mathieu Lauweriks and Herman Walenkamp. Bauer works for a period as a designer at the architectural firm Salm in Amsterdam, where he also lived.

Fame

Bauer lived temporarily in America at a young age, in the town of

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

in the state of

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. There he eventually became known for his paintings and watercolors of landscapes. Bauer was best known in

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

as the architect of the colony Walden started by the Dutch writer and psychiatrist

Frederik van Eeden Frederik Willem van Eeden (3 April 1860, Haarlem – 16 June 1932, Bussum) was a late 19th-century and early 20th-century Dutch writer and psychiatrist. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers and the Significs Group, and had top billing amo ...

, where he also had his

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or vi ...

in a hut he designed himself. Although he was often absent from here later on. The idea for this colony came from the American

Henry Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon sim ...

, who wrote the book

Walden ''Walden'' (; first published as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is an 1854 book by American transcendentalism, transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. T ...

. From 1891, he used late Gothic Islamic and Byzantine style elements in his designs. Although he used his talent to make many competition designs for a church, concert hall, theater and congress buildings, he did not want to compromise and possibly adapt his designs at the request of others. The jury often found his designs unconventional, which meant that he had little success in this field. In the Netherlands, in the course of the nineties of the 19th-century, the idea of fair, rural architecture was picked up, just as with the English

Arts and Crafts movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

of the 1870s. A crucial role in this concept change played the architect Willem Bauer, who died young, K.P.C. de Bazel and Johan Wilhelm Hanrath. Eventually Bauer became the architect of intimate country houses and studio houses. The style of many of the houses designed by him is often characterized by exterior facades that are partially white finished with wooden details, in a romantic style. He designed a number of

huts A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, clay, hid ...

and villas in

Bussum Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the province of North Holland in the Netherlands near Hilversum. Since 2016, Bussum has been part of the new municipality of Gooise Meren. Bussum had a ...

, for family and friends of Frederik van Eeden. Also a villa for Johanna Bonger (the sister-in-law of

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

) and a villa for

George 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 ...

and his brother Marius Bauer. Willem Bauer also designed other houses in the Netherlands, but his oeuvre in this area has remained limited. Architect Willem Bauer is seen as one of the founders of the

Gooi The Gooi ( ) is an area around Hilversum, in the centre of the Netherlands. It is a slightly hilly area characterised by its green landscape, its historical charm, the wealth of its inhabitants and its villas. The Gooi is known in the country a ...

se Country House style. Gedenksteen Willem Cornelis Bauer

Death

At the end of his life he suffered from depression for which he was being treated by the psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden and he suffered from

syphilitic Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent or tertiary. The primary stage classic ...

paralysis. Van Eeden eventually found Bauer dead by

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

. He was buried on 29 April 1904 at the Bosdrift General Cemetery in Hilversum, near the place where he recently lived, on the Roeltjesweg in Hilversum. The newspaper Hilversumsche Courant of 30 April 1904 wrote in a

necrology An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

: ''He understood the rare art of building a homely house''. On April 24 2023 there was a small ceremony at the place Bauer was buried, at this occasion a gravestone was placed.

List of buildings

;Bussum * Hut, van Frederik van Eeden, Frans Kampweg 22 (circa 1898), moved in 1908 * Villa ''De Maerle'', Nieuwe 's-Gravelandseweg 77 (1898) * Hut, van Carry van Hoogstraten, Nieuwe 's-Gravelandseweg 96 ( circa 1898) * Villa ''De Lelie'', Nieuwe 's-Gravelandseweg 86, designed for Frederik van Eeden (1899) * House'' Boschlust'', Nieuwe 's-Gravelandseweg 88, designed as a home for the colonies (1899) * House, French Kampweg 22, designed for Truida Everts (second wife Frederik van Eeden) (1899) * '' Villa Eikenhof'', Regentesselaan 39, designed for Jo Bongers and Johan Cohen Gosschalk (1901) * House, Frans Kampweg 2, has been inhabited by the Reverend Anne de Koe from the Kolonie Walden (1902), renovated in 1912. ;Blaricum * Country house ''Thea'', Torenlaan 13, designed for Jan Zoetelief Tromp (1900) ;Bloemendaal/Aerdenhout * Villa ''Stamboel'', designed for his brother Marius Bauer (built 1901 - demolished ) * Villa ''De Merel'', Marius Bauerlaan 5 in Aerdenhout (1901) * House ''Gimli'', Schulpweg 2, inhabited by Betsy van Vloten (demolished) * Villa ''Zonnehof'', Bentveldsweg 102, in collaboration with H.C. Jorissen, designed for Nico van Suchtelen (1901) * Villa ''Duinweide'', Bentveldsweg 104 (1902) * Villa ''Rockaertsduin'', Aerdenhoutsduinweg 13, designed for George Breitner (1902)

Examples of painting, drawings and buildings designed by Willem Cornelis Bauer

Christmas morn - painted by W.C. Bauer. LCCN92510292.jpg, Christmas morn Robed in a garment of untrodden snow, W.C. Bauer.jpg, Etching Winter landscape Midwinter, W.C. Bauer.jpg, Etching Midwinter Villa Eikenhof, zijkant.jpg, Villa Eikenhof, Bussum Villa Boschlust.jpg, House Boschlust, Bussum Woning, Franse Kampweg 22 Bussum.jpg, House, Bussum Woning, kolonie Walden.jpg, House, Colony Walden

Literature

* J.H.W. Leliman en K. Sluyterman, Het moderne landhuis in Nederland ( The Modern Country House in the Netherlands), 1916. * Dutch Architecture 1893 - 1918, Architectura, Architecture Museum, Publisher Van Gennep Amsterdam 1975, ISBN 9789060123003. * Walden in Droom en daad, Walden diaries, minutes of Frederik van Eeden et al. 1898-1903, (ed. J.S. De Ley and B. Luger). Publisher Huis aan de Drie Grachten, Amsterdam 1980. * Nooit gebouwd Nederland (Never built Netherlands), Graphic Netherlands 1980, Idea and composition Cees de Jong, Frank den Oudsten and Willem Schilder, text

Cees Nooteboom Cornelis Johannes Jacobus Maria "Cees" Nooteboom (; born 31 July 1933) is a Dutch novelist, poet and journalist. After the attention received by his novel '' Rituals'' (''Rituelen'', 1980), which won the Pegasus Prize, it was the first of his n ...

. * The Art of Building: From Classicism to Modernity. International Ideas, Dutch Debate 1840-1900, Auke van der Woud 2001. * Marius Bauer 1867-1932, Oogstrelend Oosters, Chapter 1, Youth pages 20 - 21, André Kraayenga, Waanders books Zwolle 2007, ISBN 978-9462582163.

References

This contains content from https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Cornelis_Bauer

External links

Art made by Willem Cornelis Bauer

William Cornelis Bauer

Collection Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Watercolor painting done by W.C. Bauer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bauer, Willem Cornelius 1862 births 1904 deaths Architects from The Hague Artists who died by suicide 19th-century Dutch architects Dutch watercolourists Dutch expatriates in the United States Dutch landscape painters Royal Academy of Art, The Hague alumni Dutch male painters Artists from Elizabeth, New Jersey 19th-century Dutch painters Architects from Amsterdam 19th-century Dutch male artists Suicides in the Netherlands