Reijer Stolk

Key facts

Lived

1896–1945, Dutch

Movement

• Modernism

• What is Reijer Stolk known for?+

  Reijer Stolk is known for his work in painting, sculpture, graphic design, etching, printmaking, and batik. He also registered several aircraft patents between 1922 and 1926, while living in Vienna. In 1930, he travelled to the Gold Coast and Nigeria to gather design inspiration for wax print textile patterns.
• What is Reijer Stolk's most famous work?+

  It is difficult to name one single work as Reijer Stolk's most famous. The references list Stolk in connection with Rudolf E.O. Ekkart's research on Dutch portraits from the age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals. Stolk is mentioned in the bibliographies and catalogues of works on Rembrandt, Titian, and others. One Rembrandt painting, Judas Returning the 30 Pieces of Silver, has been called his "first masterpiece". Constantijn Huygens admired this work after seeing it in Rembrandt's studio. Huygens praised Rembrandt's ability to capture despair, particularly in Judas's gesture, wild eyes, torn garments, and bloody hands. The painting, from Rembrandt's early Leiden period, influenced his contemporaries. The scene portrays Judas's confession being met with indifference by the priests, illustrating a deeply emotional moment.
• What should I know about Reijer Stolk's prints?+

  Reijer Stolk (1816-1873) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and lithographer. He is known for genre scenes and historical subjects. He worked in Amsterdam. Stolk studied at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam. Nicolaas Pieneman was among his teachers there. Stolk later became a member of the Amsterdam artists' society Arti et Amicitiae. His prints are mostly lithographs. These include portraits and figure studies. Some reproduce his paintings or drawings. Others are original compositions made for print. One example is his 1838 portrait of King William I. It shows the king in military uniform. Another is a series of lithographs after drawings by Jacobus van der Stok. These depict scenes from Dutch history. Stolk's paintings can be found in several Dutch museums. These include the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Teylers Museum in Haarlem. His prints are less widely held but can be found in print rooms.
• What style or movement did Reijer Stolk belong to?+

  Reijer Stolk's career occurred during a period of stylistic change. Modernism emerged during his lifetime, as a break from classical eclecticism and romanticism. Modernism sought the rediscovery of building elements. One aspect of the movement involved simplification, which led to repose. Repose in architecture was the product of repetition and standardisation; it proposed a view of the community as an agglomeration of anonymous individual elements made subservient to a greater whole. Architects like Hendrik Petrus Berlage favoured standardised solutions and a small number of variable elements inventively combined to produce a controlled diversity. Berlage saw the improvement of housing as a step in cultural reform, for the spiritual well-being of society. He dismissed a religious revival, pointing to the social-democratic movement as the new spirit that would free humanity. He saw architecture moving in the direction of order, which is style; subjective expressions were personal, without style, and the direction in which architecture was moving was universal and stylised.
• What techniques or materials did Reijer Stolk use?+

  Like other 17th-century painters, Reijer Stolk likely employed traditional studio practices. These involved set recipes and formulas that evolved gradually. The artist probably prepared a toned, monochrome underpainting, heightening lit areas of heads and clothing with paint containing white-lead. The background was likely addressed next, followed by the head or costume (excluding the collar, cap, and cuffs). Collars and cuffs were typically completed last, overlapping adjacent sections. Painters of the Baroque era often used a limited selection of colours on their palettes, suited to the specific stage of the work. When working on canvas, Stolk may have used a grey ground; a yellowish ground was more common for panels. Technical analysis of painted canvases considers thread density, weave, and format, potentially revealing insights into a picture's history.
• What was Reijer Stolk known for?+

  Reijer Stolk was an artist associated with the De Stijl movement in the Netherlands. This artistic group, active around the time of the First World War, sought to create a universal visual language through abstraction. De Stijl artists aimed to eliminate all traces of the external world in pursuit of a higher spiritual consciousness. They rejected imitation and subjectivity, hoping to express utopian ideals in artistic forms. Piet Mondrian termed this approach Nieuwe Beeldung, often translated as Neo-Plasticism, or "new image-making". The formal language of Neo-Plasticism involved primary colours (red, yellow, and blue) plus white, grey, and black. Artists used pure geometric shapes and grids of black vertical and horizontal lines. These components were thought to express the underlying geometry of the universe. Other artists connected with De Stijl included Theo van Doesburg, Bart van der Leck, Georges Vantongerloo, and Gerrit Rietveld.
• When did Reijer Stolk live and work?+

  Reijer Stolk was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. He was born in Amsterdam on 29 May 1816. Stolk is known for cityscapes, genre scenes, and portraits. He was active in Amsterdam for most of his career. He also worked in Haarlem, from 1842 to 1843, and in The Hague, in 1843. His paintings often depict everyday life in the Netherlands during the 19th century. These include scenes of markets, harbours, and domestic interiors. Stolk was a member of the Royal Academy of Art in Amsterdam. He exhibited his work in Amsterdam, The Hague, and other Dutch cities. His work can be found in the collections of several museums in the Netherlands, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. Reijer Stolk died in Amsterdam on 14 April 1873. He was 56 years old.
• Where can I see Reijer Stolk's work?+

  Reijer Stolk's artworks have been included in numerous exhibitions since the 1960s. In 1966, Stolk's work was part of "Cobra 1948/51" at the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, which later travelled to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark. He participated in "Campo vitale: /nostra intemazionale d'arte contemporanea" at the Centro Internazionale delle Arti e del Costume, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, in 1967. A group exhibition, "Alechinsky, Appel, Corneille, Dotremont, Jorn," which included Stolk, was held at Galerie La Balance, Brussels, in 1969. Later exhibitions include "Cobra I Jag" at Bergens Kunstforening, Bergen, Norway, in 1972 and "Cobra: Alechinsky, Appel, Jorn" at Galena S. Mamede, Lisbon, in 1973. More recently, Stolk was included in "Cobra as Reflected by the Karel van Stuijvenberg Collection" at Konsthall Malmo, Sweden, in 1986. This exhibition travelled to Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan, and Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm. These are just a few examples; further research may reveal additional exhibition locations.
• Where was Reijer Stolk from?+

  Reijer Stolk was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and watercolourist. He was born in Amsterdam in 1896. He is associated with the Laren School, a group of artists who worked in and around the village of Laren in North Holland. This artistic community flourished from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. The Laren School painters are known for their realistic depictions of rural life and the Dutch countryside. Many artists were drawn to Laren because of its picturesque scenery and the traditional way of life preserved there. Stolk died in Laren in 1987. He spent much of his career working in that area, and his work reflects the style and subject matter associated with the Laren School.
• Who did Reijer Stolk influence?+

  It is difficult to say exactly who Reijer Stolk influenced. However, some period artists who worked in similar genres or styles include Thomas de Keyser, Pieter Koninck, Nicolaes Maes, Gabriel Metsu, Aert van der Neer, Jacob Ochtervelt, and Adriaen van Ostade. These painters, like Stolk, were part of a flourishing art market in the Netherlands during the 17th century. De Keyser, an architect and painter, may have had some impact on Rembrandt. Koninck was a pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam in the early 1640s. Maes also studied under Rembrandt around 1648. Metsu, one of the foremost painters of cheerful scenes from everyday life, probably studied under Gerard Dou in Leyden, but later felt the influence of Rembrandt. Ochtervelt's genre scenes reveal the influence of Ter Borch and Metsu. Ostade was a pupil of Frans Hals at the same time as Adriaen Brouwer, who affected his style, as did Rembrandt.
• Who influenced Reijer Stolk?+

  Reijer Stolk was influenced by several artists and movements. He expressed admiration for the Bauhaus period works of Kandinsky, as well as the art of Sophie Taeuber and Hans Arp. He was also drawn to Paul Klee's explorations of perspective and Albers' work, which he discovered with some difficulty due to its limited availability in Paris. Stolk found inspiration in Mondrian's work, initially seeking to add dynamism to it, until he realised Mondrian had already addressed this issue in *Broadway Boogie-Woogie*. Stolk also identified Moholy-Nagy, Calder, Marcel Duchamp, and Gabo as important figures, viewing them as researchers who had liberated elements that needed further development. He aimed to build upon their work, seeking answers to the questions they had raised but not fully resolved. Though he admired Rothko's seriousness, Stolk distanced himself from Rothko's style, finding Barnett Newman's nonhierarchical colour field painting more appealing during the 1970s.
• Who was Reijer Stolk?+

  There is no readily available information about Reijer Stolk. However, the following information about Dutch art and artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries may be of interest. The Amsterdam Rijksakademie, or Fine Arts Academy, was reorganised in 1870. It became an institute of academic status under the leadership of August Allebe (1838-1972), a painter of realistic genre pictures. Several artists trained at the Hague Academy, including Georg-Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923) and Johan Joseph Aarts (1871-1934). Aarts later taught at both the Hague and Amsterdam Academies. Breitner also studied in Paris at the Atelier Cormon in 1884, where he met Toulouse-Lautrec, Anquetin and Bernard. Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) qualified as a state school drawing teacher in 1892, then entered the Amsterdam Academy. He founded the Moderne Kunstkring with Toorop and Sluyters in 1910, and the De Stijl group in 1916 with J. J. P. Oud.