Marinus Bies (1894-1975) - Landschap met gele lucht

This atmospheric and expressive painting depicts a vast rural landscape at sundown, in which a narrow country road winds its way between dark fields and meadows toward the horizon. The artist has created a particularly dramatic and melancholic atmosphere with a restrained palette of deep browns, olive greens, and ochre tones. The imposing, heavily clouded sky occupies a large portion of the composition and is subtly lit at the horizon by a warm, golden glow from the setting sun. The loose, vigorous brushwork and the rich, impasto texture give the work a lively and characterful appearance. Notably, there is a contrast between the dark foreground, in which a few fence posts and rural elements are visible, and the light strip on the horizon, which lends the landscape a special sense of depth. The painting breathes the quiet and vastness of the countryside and bears witness to a strong sense of light, mood, and the pristine beauty of nature.

Executed in oil on canvas
Dimensions: work about 35 x 35 cm; with frame about 50 x 50 cm.
Provenance: private collection, F. de V., Eindhoven.

Biography of the artist
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, and in particular the Peel. He was a pupil of Arnold Marc Gorter and Jan Kruysen and developed a powerful, freely painted visual language in which landscape, color and atmosphere are central. From 1933 he worked as a professional artist. In 1938 and 1939 Bies participated in group exhibitions; in this period the Van Abbemuseum acquired a Peel landscape by him. His work was subsequently also exhibited in the Rijksmuseum. On the occasion of his hundredth birth anniversary, Museum Kempenland Eindhoven organized an exhibition around his oeuvre in 1994. In 2025 his fiftieth death anniversary in the Peel region was commemorated with a series of exhibitions in which his landscape art was central.