Willem Hendrik van der Nat (1864–1929) - Haven

In this work Willem van der Nat does something very special. He has worked on brown paper, which he deliberately leaves visible in the composition. With subtly applied paint he lets the color of the paper often determine the shapes. Look, for example, at the boat on the left: both the water and the boat largely consist of the natural brown shade of the paper. Yet it is immediately recognizable that you are looking at a boat on the water. This subtle play between paint and substrate shows Van der Nat's great talent and makes this work special and refined.

Dimensions: 30 cm x 37 cm
Dimensions with frame: 40 cm x 49 cm
The work is signed in the bottom left.
The work is in a beautiful frame.

Willem Hendrik van der Nat (Leiden, 1864–1929) was a versatile artist: painter, draftsman, watercolorist, sculptor, etcher, illustrator and lithographer. He received his first drawing lessons at a young age and later followed training in The Hague and Leiden, where he befriended artist Floris Verster and art critic H.P. Bremmer.

Initially Van der Nat worked as an illustrator and lithographer, but around 1900 he devoted himself entirely to painting. His style developed from the influence of the Hague School to a more expressive, colorful approach, partly inspired by Van Gogh and Millet. He gained fame with his paintings of sheep and goats, often made during his stays in Drenthe, but he also painted still lifes, landscapes and Spanish scenes.

Van der Nat was co-founder of the Leiden artists' association De Kunst om De Kunst and is counted among the core of the so-called Leiden Impressionists — a group of painters distinguished by their loose brushwork and vibrant use of color. They painted in and around the city of Leiden. The movement is related to the Hague School. His work is represented in the collections of various museums, such as the Stedelijk Museum, De Lakenhal in Leiden and the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterloo.