Wouter Bernard (Wout) van Heusden (25 September 1896 in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

– 9 July 1982 in Rotterdam) was a Dutch graphic artist, who also worked as etcher, lithographer, manufacturer of woodcuts, painter, draftsman, and painters.Wout van Heusden; male / Netherlandish; graphic artist, etcher, lithographer, manufacturer of woodcuts, painter, draftsman, painters
at rkd.nl, 2015. Van Heusden attended evening art classes in graphic techniques at the Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten (now

Willem de Kooning Academy The Willem de Kooning Academy () is a Dutch academy of media, art, design, leisure and education based in Rotterdam. It was named after one of its most famous alumni, Dutch fine artist Willem de Kooning. Overview The Willem de Kooning Academy ...

) in Rotterdam, and kept living and working in Rotterdam-Zuid. Aside from a few brief trips to Paris and Munich, he barely left his part of the city. Initially he locally made a name as a painter of

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

s and

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

s. His still lifes often have a surreal character and fits into the

magic realism Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical re ...

and

surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

. Later, his graphic work prevailed, initially

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, 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 ...

s, and later only

etching 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 type ...

. Hereby he developed a unique technique with

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used ...

, which contrasted with lines, in which a magical, dreamlike atmosphere was recalled. In 1946 Van Heusden and Koos van Vlijmen founded the artist group ''Vrije Beelden'' (Free Images), and among others Piet van Stuivenberg jointed their group. In 1962 Van Heusden was given a major retrospective exhibition at the

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located a ...

, which was followed by other museum exhibitions. Meanwhile, Van Heusden remained studiously out of the spotlight (being called "the Hermit of Tuindorp"), and he participated with colleagues and galleries. At the end of his life he was a little more accessible. His paintings, which he exhibited after 1962 were generally less acclaimed than his etchings, probably because they were significantly different from what was usual. Van Heusden was awarded the Sambre Award in 1959, the Rembrandt Award in 1966, and the Hendrik Chabot Award for his graphics in 1968. The city of

granted him Wolfert Borsele Penning in 1975. His work is present in the MoMA collection.Work in MoMA collection
2015. He had also worked as a photographer; in an edition of the photomagazine "Focus", dated 3 October 1959 he explained in an article he wrote, about how he became a photographer.

References

External links

www.woutvanheusden.nl
1896 births 1982 deaths Painters from Rotterdam Dutch graphic artists Dutch painters Dutch male painters Dutch sculptors Dutch male sculptors Willem de Kooning Academy alumni {{Netherlands-artist-stub