Marinus Bies (1894-1975) - Landschap met boerderij

This atmospheric, expressionist landscape painting depicts a rural barn with a characteristic slanted roof, surrounded by whimsically shaped trees and a rustic wooden fence. The artist has used a rich, earthy color palette, in which deep greens, browns, and ochre tones alternate with soft yellow and blue tints in the cloudy sky. The bold, loose brushstrokes and the impasto paint treatment give the work a lively texture and a distinctly pictorial character. The dark tree trunks and their spreading branches frame the composition and guide the eye to the centrally placed barn. The interplay of light and shadow creates depth and enhances the somewhat melancholic mood of the landscape. Despite the dynamic brushwork, the painting radiates a remarkable calm and strikingly captures the simplicity and beauty of rural life.

Executed in oil on canvas, lower right signed ‘Bies’. Dimensions of the work approx. 35 × 45 cm; with frame approx. 54 × 64 cm.
Provenance: private collection, F. de V., Eindhoven.

Artist biography
Marinus Bies (Aarle-Rixtel, 1894–1975), full name Martinus Johannes Bies, was a Dutch painter and draftsman whose oeuvre is closely linked to the Brabant landscape, especially the Peel. He studied under Arnold Marc Gorter and Jan Kruysen and developed a powerful, freely painted visual language in which landscape, color, and atmosphere are central. From 1933 onward he worked as a professional artist. In 1938 and 1939 Bies participated in group exhibitions; during this period the Van Abbemuseum acquired a Peel landscape by him. His work was subsequently exhibited at the Rijksmuseum as well. To mark his hundredth birth anniversary, Museum Kempenland Eindhoven organized an exhibition around his oeuvre in 1994. In 2025 his fiftieth anniversary of death in the Peel region was commemorated with a series of exhibitions focusing on his landscape art.