Chris van der Windt (1877-1952) - Roze anjers

Christophe van der Windt
Brussels 1877 - 1952 Leiden
Pink Anemones
oil on panel.

A particularly beautiful painting by the Leiden Impressionist.
The painting is fitted with a Heijdenrijk frame.

Chris van der Windt was a Dutch painter.
Van der Windt is regarded as part of the Leiden Impressionists, a group of painters also referred to as the Leiden School. Other Leiden Impressionists include: Arend Jan van Driesten, Willem van der Nat, Lucas Verkoren, Johannes Cornelis Roelandse, and Alex Rosemeier.
Several works by Chris van der Windt hang in the Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden.
Belgian/Dutch, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek 1877 – 1952 Leiden. Chris van der Windt was born in Belgium as the son of a father who was half Dutch and half Belgian and a Dutch mother. When his father dies at the age of forty, Van der Windt is only five; he moves with his mother and his two younger brothers to Leiden, his mother’s birthplace. There his mother rents a house and a laundry to support her family as a washwoman.
From early on, it is clear that Van der Windt has drawing talent. He sells his drawings to the teacher and classmates for a penny or for a scribble. Therefore he later goes to the crafts school to learn the trade of a house painter. He also follows training in ornament drawing.
From 1894 to 1897 he works as a house painter. In Leiden he also attends lessons at the Drawing School of Wilhelm Johan Lampe. In 1898 and 1899 he works as an apprentice with the well-known decorative painter Pieter Johannes Niesten. He paints a lot for the Stadsgehoorzaal and the Schouwburg in Leiden during that time. In 1900 Van der Windt decides to continue as a free artist.
Although he did not formally study painting at an academy, Van der Windt quickly develops a good, distinctive style and a high level of technical skill. He becomes not only a proficient oil painter but also skilled in the technically demanding watercolour technique. In the manner of the Hague School he paints landscapes, farmhouses and farmyards in the Leiden area, Stompwijk, Zoeterwoude, Zoetermeer, Noordwijkerhout, Nootdorp, Rijnsburg, Zegwaard and Katwijk. He often goes out with fellow painters to paint, from early morning at five o’clock until late evening. He spends much time with the Leiden painters Arend Jan van Driesten and Alexander Rosemeier, friends for life.
A separate group within Van der Windt’s oeuvre consists of his still lifes. "His use of colour in his landscapes and farmyards is entirely in the tradition of the Hague School, sober, with a lot of gray, brown and green tones."
Within a few years Van der Windt’s talent is discovered by the art trade. In the period 1903–1917 he sells a great deal through the renowned dealership Boussod en Valadon & Cie in The Hague. Not all of his work remains in the Netherlands. Much is sold to Great Britain, America and Canada. At Boussod en Valadon he meets renowned Hague School painters such as Willem Maris and Willem Bastiaan Tholen, who greatly value his work. The famous Jozef Israëls even asks Van der Windt in 1907 if he would join the prestigious ‘Hollandsche Teekenmaatschappij,’ a great honour at the time.
During this period Van der Windt sees the prices of his work rise and can live well from it. After Boussod en Valadon was dissolved in 1917, he mostly sells his work through the renowned dealer and framer Sala, which has branches in Leiden and The Hague.

Painting carefully packed and sent by registered mail