Stoere verfstreken van Sientje Mesdag – Van Houten

Sientje van Houten (Groningen, 1834 - The Hague, 1909) was interested in painting and drawing from an early age and found a like-minded life partner in Hendrik Willem Mesdag. This painter left his existence as a businessman in 1866. Together they moved to Oosterbeek where Hendrik Willem Mesdag started working with Bilders. Later they traveled to Brussels where Mesdag was apprenticed to Willem Roelofs. It was only after the death of their only child in 1871 that Sientje started to focus entirely on painting. After her first visit to Gelderland, Mesdag - Van Houten kept coming back more often to paint the tranquil countryside. The paintings depicting farmhouses and sheepfolds surrounded by bare trees and often moody, gloomy weather conditions give a clear impression of Gelderland in the autumn and the harsh farm life. This work can be seen until 23 September 2018 in Gelderland Grensland, an exhibition in CODA Museum Apeldoorn that brings together landscape painting from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. An excellent opportunity to travel through the province of Gelderland through masterpieces from four centuries of art history! www.coda-apeldoorn.nl/gg Image: Sientje Mesdag - Van Houten, Sheepfold in Twello, ca. 1880-1890, oil on canvas, Panorama Mesdag, The Hague